Amend the Future
by ruwish
Summary: When the Primordial Goddess Gaia woke up from her slumber, she destroyed everything. What happens when the hero returns to the beginning with all his powers but none of his achievements? Prophecies Change. Time travel fic.
1. Prologue - The End Is Just The Beginning

**Author's Note** : To begin, I have some announcements to make. Well, it certainly has been awhile since I last updated anything. For those who read my Menace to Olympus: I'm sorry but I will not be updating that anymore, unless I rewrite the whole thing. Why? Because it's just plain garbage. It's so bad that I cringe when I read it myself. For those who read my cross over between Fate and High School DxD: I will update that fic if I have time, but for now, I want to focus on the one i'm currently writing and actually finish it this time. Feel free to leave a review, follow/favorite, or PM if you have any question. I will be happy to answer them. If you have any ideas, you can also leave me a PM or write it in the review. I do have the majority of the story planned out, or at least where I want to take this, but fresh ideas are definitely welcomed. Also special thanks to firehelm for collaborating with me and helping me edit ^_^ Check him out, he is a good writer, but I can't guarantee you that you will be satisfied since he never finishes his story. Anyway, enjoy!

Prologue: The End Is Just The Beginning

"Annabeth! Watch out!" I screamed desperately at the daughter of Athena who was too busy fighting a basilisk to notice that a hellhound crept up behind her.

Swiftly, she rolled to the side and avoided the pouncing hellhound. The basilisk, however, did not stop its attack. Before Annabeth could recover herself, the monster swept its tail underneath her, knocking her to the ground, and sunk its fangs deeply into her calf. A cry of pain let loose from the daughter of Athena as her blood dripped down and was absorbed into Gaia's waiting hand.

"The blood of Olympus shall raise our mother!" One of the Giants loudly cried. "Now, we just need one more sacrifice from that son of Poseidon."

Ignoring what the giant said, I continued to slaughter my way to Annabeth, who was currently on the ground with Thalia and Clarisse defending her. After slicing through an Empousa, I ran towards them and knelt down next to her to scrutinize her wound.

"Annabeth," I said while breathing heavily. "Are you alright?"

"No, seaweed brain," she grimaced and hissed through grit teeth. "Can't you tell that I'm poisoned from the color of my calf?" I looked down and mentally kicked myself for not noticing such an obvious thing before yelling into the sky, "Apollo! Get over here!"

In an instant, the god of medicine flashed next to us and looked at Annabeth for a brief moment. "This should do it," he said while sending a pulse of golden light to her calf, closing the wound slowly. I gave him a nod of thanks and turned back to see Annabeth in a much better state and was trying to stand back up.

"Careful there wise girl," I knitted my brows at her. "I don't want you to get hurt or die."

In response, Annabeth rolled her eyes at me, "You shouldn't be the one talking, considering you're the one running into harm at any chance you get."

Before I could defend myself by saying that I never asked for any of this and that the Fates always had their own ways of making my life as difficult as possible, Thalia looked back at us after impaling a dracaena with her electric spear, "Guys, less talk and more monster killing alright?"

I stuck out my tongue playfully at the daughter of the Zeus. "Alright pinecone face," I began cheekily. "Let's have a competition then."

Without taking an eye off of the dracaena that she was fighting, she asked in a challenging tone, "Oh? What competition? Well, either way, I'm going to whoop your ass anyway, so bring it on." Even though I was unable to see her face, I swear she was smirking at this very moment.

Picking up Riptide and assisting Thalia in finishing off the dracaena, I told her my idea. "It's a simple one," I began as I twirled around to avoid another pouncing hellhound before kicking it out of the way. "Whoever kills the most monsters will be the winner. Of course, the loser will have to take on an undeniable request from the winner." I added cheekily in the end.

"You're on, Jackson," Thalia accepted with an evil grin on her face. I shuddered at the thought of her asking me to do something extremely embarrassing in front of the campers and the hunters. I was determined to win this time, since it didn't really end well last time. If I remembered correctly, it ended up with me having to wear a t-shirt that said "I LOVE GREEN DAY" while singing and dancing to their songs during campfire.

I pushed the distasteful memory out of my mind. "By the way," I began with an evil grin of my own. "The dracaena that I just killed will count as one for me." Sure, she had the kill, but in order to win this little competition of ours for sure, I would need every advantage.

"Hey!" Thalia protested while blocking a strike from the monster. "If you want to play dirty like that, then so be it."

The daughter of Zeus raised her hand into the air and summoned a huge bolt of lightning down from the sky while giving me a smirk. The instant the bolt made contact with the earth, several dozens of monsters around her disintegrated immediately.

"Well, two can play that game," I muttered under my breath and began drawing power within myself. A familiar tug was felt as a miniature hurricane sprang to life. Within seconds, all the monsters within five meters were either swept off the ground by the wind or destroyed by the storm.

Thalia narrowed her eyes and without another word, she resumed the slaughter. She would impale a monster with her spear, drop to a roll while unsheathing her hunting knives to either throw it to the next target or slash away at amazing speed. While she had the swift movements of a hunter to surprise the monsters, I on the other hand relied on raw strength. Riptide became arcs of destruction as I hacked away wildly, leaving a trail of golden dust behind me. Though our fighting styles were vastly different, we were still able to achieve the same result.

After carving a path in the monster's rank, I ended up right next to an exhausted looking son of Hephaestus. "How you holding up Leo?" I asked while parrying an attack from an empousa with Leo finished it off with a fireball.

"Man, just how many more of them?" he whined. "Why can't the earth lady just stay asleep?"

I chuckled a bit. At least he was still able to make jokes. "I don't know man," I replied. "Anyways, have you seen Jason?"

"Yeah, he should be over there with beauty queen," he pointed to the left, in which I nodded and began working my way over there. Despite the fact that all my friends were capable of holding their own grounds, I wanted to ensure that nothing tragic occurred in the midst of battle. Already, few demigods I knew from the camps had fallen during battle, which made me want to ensure the safety of my friends even more so. The image of Annabeth getting hurt from the basilisk flashed briefly in my mind. Injuries were inevitable, but death was avoidable. At the very minimum, I would do all that I could to prevent any loss of life.

As I cautiously made my way over to Jason and Piper, I carefully scanned the battlefield. Zeus and Hera were riding in a chariot, blasting off pure energy into groups of monsters. Artemis and Apollo were fighting next to few hunters, supporting the Olympian army by firing silver and golden arrows from afar. Hades and Nico were doing their underworld thing, summoning the undead to aid us in any possible way. Though the undead's' movements were not as proficient as any demigods, having an extra body on the field was still able to serve as an useful distraction for us. Occasionally, the ground would open up and swallow some monsters before closing back again. Everything was at a disadvantage, yet we were still able to defend ourselves from their relentless assaults.

"Jason," I yelled which he glanced to see who was calling him. When he realized it was me, he gave out a big smile. "How are you holding up?"

Summoning a lightning bolt from the sky and knocking away a hellhound with the shaft of his spear. "I'm alright. Sent few hundreds of them back to Tartarus," he pointed at the pile of golden dust around his feet. "How about you?"

Before I could answer, a large horn sounded from a distance, signaling the retreat of the monsters. I let out a sigh of relief. A break would be nice right now.

 _How wrong was I._

As soon as all the monsters retreated, the true enemies of this battle stalked out. All the gods flashed next to their demigod children at the sight of the giants that were born to oppose each of them. The prophecy seven had their respective parents standing right next to them, preparing to take down those children of Gaia.

"I see that you godlings have managed to survive against my forces," the king of giants mused out loudly as he raised his hand, signaling the others to halt. "I am quite impressed, seeing that you are outnumbered by ten folds. So, I've decided," he made a pause and eyed us cheekily. "If you surrender now and hand over all the goddesses on your side, along with Perseus Jackson, then we will show mercy by allowing you to live. Afterall, his sacrifice is very important for the awakening of our mother."

"You dare?" Zeus bellowed in anger, enraged at the incredulous proposal. "The result is going to be the same as last time with you dead in Tartarus and us victorious."

Instead of feeling insulted, Porphyrion began to laugh. "You really think we didn't learn our lessons from last time? You really think Gaia doesn't have a plan at all?" As if right on cue, numerous earthborns appeared from the ground, circling in the twelve gods and demigods with the exception of Frank and Ares since Damasen was still banished in Tartarus for being a peaceful giant. The rest of the demigods could only watch in horror, but their horror was quickly replaced by panic when the monsters slowly advanced towards them. They were heavily outnumbered like Porphyrion had said and after realizing that help from the prophecy seven was impossible, they began to lose their morale. "Like I said, there is no hope for you godlings this time. Surrender and follow through our conditions for a merciful ending."

The situation was definitely not favorable for us, but then again, since when was it favorable. A year ago, we had to fight against the Titans with little to no help from the gods to salvage the western civilization. Each and every battle that I fought was for the sake of protecting and saving what I cared the most - my friends and families. And each and every time, sacrifices were made to accomplish such goal and to maintain the current peace. True, not everyone could be saved but my friends had been dying because of me, and the pain and guilt were starting to overwhelm me.

Bekendorf, Selena, Zoe, Bianca, and many others would've lived if not for me. I looked to my side and caught Annabeth looking at me as well. I wouldn't be able to bear the pain if anyone else died because I wanted to be a hero and fight till the very end. If my sacrifice was able to save everyone around me, then so be it.

"Romans," a confident yet crystal clear voice barked over the panicking sounds of the scattered demigods and also broke me from my thoughts of turning myself in. "Get into formations. Hold your grounds and stand up tall like a proud Roman you are!" With the encouragements from Reyna, the Roman demigods began to form into ranks. The legionaries formed up in small triangles with the tip pointing towards the enemies, which served as a mean to break through the enemy lines and was reinforced by adding more demigods from behind. Without a doubt, fear still existed among the ranks, but the pride and honor of being a Roman forced them to push their negative feelings behind and to fight till the very end.

On the Greek side, Nico and Thalia were also doing similar things to lift the mood of the campers. "Hunters," Thalia began while eyeing all of their sisters with fierce determination. "I'm not as wordy and dramatic as Reyna, so all I can say is," she paused mid sentence for the dramatic effect while failing to contain her smirk. "Good hunting." A cheer erupted among the hunters of Artemis, and the Goddess herself gave her lieutenant a smile.

Thalia then turned her attention towards me with her eyes narrowed. As if knowing what I was thinking, she said in a dangerous tone. "Percy Jackson," she addressed me while giving me a murderous look. "If you value all of us and our friendship, you better not turn yourself in stupidly. You got that?" She was serious, and I could hear a tight tone to it that indicated an anticipation to my answer. Annabeth, along with the others that were trapped in by the earthborns, all gave me the same look, demonstrating that no alternatives could be made here. I was slightly surprised by the fact that all the gods, including Ares, showed off the same expression.

"Listen up punk," the god of war grunted as he shifted into his Greek personale. "I may not like you, but if you surrender yourself to them, I would not be able to participate in possibly the greatest blood bath since Trojan war." By the end of the sentence, he was almost unable to contain his excitement. "But kid," he quickly added when all the other gods stared at him, shifting back into his Roman aspect. "You have my respect as Mars, and it would be a shame if you were to die by their hands."

"Yes Perseus," Artemis began after rolling her eyes at the god of war. "It would indeed be a shame if the only decent man on this planet were to die." On the side, Aphrodite agreed by nodding her head furiously, though I was sure that her reason was completely different from Artemis'.

I looked up at Poseidon, who smiled warmly at me. "Percy," he began with a somewhat sorrowful tone. "I'm sorry that you have to go through all this, but I will always be by your side and fight with you till the very end," Poseidon reassured me, which all the gods nodded in agreement.

"So are you done with your little farewell," Porphyrion taunted, while his brothers laughed in unison. "I was correct in having no expectations. You don't want to surrender." he concluded, amusement in his voice. Focusing his gaze at me, the king of giants asked, "Perseus Jackson, are you sure you want to watch your friends perish under our hands? Alas, it would be a tremendous pity that they would all shed their blood when a single sacrifice on your part could've prevented it."

I turned to look at Annabeth, who also happened to be staring right back at me, gave me an encouraging smile. At that moment, I knew what to do.

"Porphyrion," I spoke up, which everyone looked at me expectantly. The battlefield was dead silent as they waited for me to finish. Porphyrion looked as if victory was in his hand, while Zeus has a worried expression. "It seems that my friends are not going down without a fight. Sorry to disappoint you, but you are not going to get what you want so easily." I glared right back into the giant's eyes and continued with a dead serious voice, "If you want me, then come and get me. But just so you know, I am not planning to lose any of my friends anymore."

Upon receiving my answer, Porphyrion boomed into laughter. "Just how stupid can you be?" He then narrowed his eyes, his sinister smile still ever present on his face, and raised his hand up, "If that's what you want, then you will all perish!"

"Bring it on," Zeus snarled. "We'll see who ends up in Tartarus after today." With his symbol of power in his hand, he shifted to his Roman personale, Jupiter, before addressing his son. "Jason," Zeus began solemnly. "I know I'm never around you, but that's something you have to shoulder as my son. That being said, I am proud of what you have accomplished thus far."

"Thank you, father," Jason responded to his father. "And it will be my honor to fight beside you." Satisfied with his answer, Jupiter gave his son an approving smile.

This was the end. This was the final fight that would determine whether or not the western civilization was going to remain or perish by the earth mother's hands. All the training we did, all the quests we completed, and all the experience we accumulated over the course of our lives as demigods lead us to this very moment.

Though we were surrounded by the earthborns and the giants, the best course of action here was to focus on my own fight and to take them down as fast as possible. Thalia looked at me and gave me a nod of assurance. Nico and the other demigods were all in formation, ready to strike once the battle begins. Nonetheless, the tension of the battlefield was as tight as a fully drawn bow, and the momentary lull was only the calm before the storm. Turning to my side, I gave Annabeth a smile, and mouthed "I love you" to her, which she returned with a smile of her own and mouthed something that seemed to say "I know, kelp head."

Leo stood next to Hephaestus, both had their hammers out with Leo's being engulfed with fire. The goddess of love had a relaxed expression on her face, occasionally summoning a mirror to ensure her makeup remained perfect. Piper held onto Katoptris and eyed the giants nervously whereas Frank had transformed into a grizzly bear with Mars by his side, gripping onto the shaft of the spear. Since Hades was fighting alongside Nico, Hazel now found herself in the presence of Hecate, who opted to surround herself in a thin layer of mist.

Glaring at us with immense amount of hatred and digust, Porphyrion raised his hand and let out a battle cry, determined to draw the curtains for the final battle and revive his mother. And of course, I would not allow that to happen.

No one was going to die anymore. I will save them all.

"Perseus Jackson," Polybotes bellowed loudly at me, eyeing me with pure hatred. "Come forward and let me taste your blood." With the help from Terminus, he was defeated when his forces invaded Camp Jupiter. And with some odd sadistic reasons, he really wanted to kill my dad and I in ways that I had never imagined before.

With a smirk forming, I taunted the thirty feet tall giant, "I see that you've forgotten how it ended last time. May I remind you that you got your ass whooped by me?" A look of pure fury was clearly shown on his face. Good. This was what I was going for. Against this narrow minded and short tempered giant, agitating him before the fight even started could potentially be advantageous.

Enraged by my remarks, the bane of Poseidon charged at me with a trident in his hand. Since this was my second time battling this particular giant, his movements along with his attack patterns were quite predictable to me. With ease, I simply sidestepped his attack at the very last second, causing him to stumble forward a bit to regain his balance. Poseidon, who was watching from the side, saw this small opening and attempted to land a blow with his own trident. As fast as the god of sea was, the giant, however, was faster to react.

Immediately, I stepped up to defend my father by attacking the giant as I was able to anticipate the giant's next move. Before Polybotes could grab the shaft of Poseidon's trident and kick him in the chest, I lunged forward with Riptide in hand, aiming at the giant's armpit. There were two possible scenarios that could play out. The first one was the best case where the giant continues his retaliation, but loses his arm in the process, or he could simply dodge and avoid my attack, thereby resetting the entire fight. Fortunately, the giant tunneled vision on Poseidon. He did manage to disarm the god of sea, but in return, the giant lost his arm so fast that he didn't even react until it was entirely severed. Unfortunately for Poseidon, he also took a kick square in the chest, sending him flying backwards fifteen meters.

"Dad!" I yelled across the field, but got no response back as Poseidon laid still on his back. Even as one of the strongest gods, I wasn't sure how much that kick did to Poseidon. Sure, surviving that blow was almost a certainty, but being able to get back up and fight right now didn't seem like an option.

Polybotes began with an evil grin while holding onto his left shoulder with his still intacted right arm. "Looks like it's just me and you now, Perseus. I will make sure to have some fun with you first before I give you to my mother." I glared at the giant fearlessly, but at the same time, dread was piling up in my mind. A giant could only be taken down by the help of a god, so even if Poseidon was unconscious for now, I could still take down the giant with the help from other gods.

"As you can see," as if reading my thought, Polybotes spoke up. "My brothers are coming out advantageous or at the minimum, even, in these skirmishes," he said as he pointed towards Leo and Hephaestus with a smug face, who were battling against Mimas. Leo seemed to have lost one of his shoes sometime during the fight and was currently digging through his toolbelt to find something useful. Coming up with elaborate plans or was not an option under the giant's influence as his ability, reality warping, made everything break in his presence, including even an Athena approved plan.

I had to restrain myself from cursing out loudly as I surveyed the battlefield quickly just to realize that Polybotes wasn't boasting this time. Aside from Annabeth and Hazel, everyone else was on the defensive, trying their best to survive the brutality from the giants. Jason was floating in the air with his gladius, trying his best to sneak in some attacks while Jupiter was assisting by sending down bolts of lightning. Due to Porphyrion's electrical resistance nature, it was quite difficult for Jason to land any meaningful blows. The only reason that Jason was still alive was thanks to Zeus' master bolt as its tremendous might was able to penetrate defenses. Despite the power being weaker than usual, it was still able to weaken and distract the king of giants.

Though Piper was a skilled fighter, she was still struggling to keep up with Periboia. The training sessions she had with Hazel and Annabeth were definitely paying off since she was able to, at the very least, defend for herself. Occasionally, Aphrodite would sprinkle down rose petals as she flew around in a cloud of white smoke, temporarily blinding the giant, allowing her daughter to either evade the attacks or land a blow herself. However, the sheer power from the giant was too much for the Cherokee girl as she found herself backtracking while the giant pressed her attacks harder and harsher.

I was glad that Annabeth was doing well against Enceladus. Watching her popping out and disappearing into thin air with the usage of her Yankee baseball cap reminded me of the old days when we used to fight along each other's side. Athena was in her full battle gear with Aegis in her left hand and a spear in her right. As the goddess of battle, she definitely demonstrated her prowess in combat skills by holding her own against the giant that was opposed to her. With her magic shield, she would use it to block the purple flame from the fire breathing giant before striking back with incredible force and precision. To make matters worse for Enceladus, he also had to be wary of sneak attacks from Annabeth. The guerilla warfare like tactic that the duo was using proved to be quite successful, in which Athena would challenge the giant head on while Annabeth would deal as much damage as possible with her ability to stealth behind the giant. Even though the damage that Annabeth was dealing wasn't enough to fatally wound Enceladus, it still placed a large toll on the giant since eventually all the damage done would add up. Not only that, he also had to watch out for Athena's relentless attacks.

Before I turned my attention back to Polybotes, I noticed a small movement out of the corner of my eyes and I couldn't help but smirk a little. "Yes, you are right about that," I began with a calm voice, trying my best not to give away what was coming next. It was quite obvious that Polybotes failed to notice that Poseidon was slowly getting back onto his feet since the giant had yet to move to reposition himself to be wary of attacks from the previously downed god. "But, you know how I am going to beat you?" I asked while the giant gave me a confused look, no clue what I was trying to imply. To him, I was a trapped mouse, waiting to be killed, or in this case, sacrificed to wake his mother. "By using your ego."

Right after I finished, Poseidon shot his trident at the giant in front of me, piercing him through the heart while I stayed low and launched myself forward, aiming to land the finishing blow to send him back to Tartarus. It all happened so quickly that with widened eyes full of disbelief, Polybotes collapse to the ground, once again losing due to his overconfidence.

Out of nowhere, a loud roar pierced through the atmosphere. Swirling my body around to face the source of the sound, my previous triumphant smile was quickly replaced by a shocked expression. On the other side of the earthborns where the other demigods were fighting, a figure laid completely still. Even though it was a bit far away, there was no way to mistaken the fallen demigod by the stocky and large frame. Additionally, kneeling next to him was Mars who had a sadden face, but was doing a good job at concealing his emotions. Even though he knew death was bound to happen on a battlefield, the lost of his son still hit him quite hard.

My shocked expression morphed into anger and guilt. Angry that the giants killed one of my friends and guilty because I couldn't protect Frank, resulting in his death. Polybotes, though near death, couldn't help but boom into laughters. "Perseus Jackson," he managed to get out, using a mocking tone of voice. "You may have defeated me, but you will also pay the price by watching your friends die. You shall suffer from this eternally. Oh look," the dying giant raised his arm up weakly and pointed towards Jason and Jupiter's direction.

"NO," I screamed desperately, but the inevitable had already happened. Though Porphyrion still had the upper hand in the battle, the relentless attacks from Jupiter's high voltage lightning along with Jason's skill with the gladius has proven to be nuisance to him. With a roar of defiance, Porphyrion unleashed a shock of electricity, knocking the duo back several feet. The giant then looked at them with a smirk as the spear in his hand began to glow brightly while Jupiter and Jason stayed on the defensive, staring at their enemy warily. When the light dimmed down, a different spear was in his hand. It looked majestic with the golden color, but the fear and dread that the weapon was radiating upon its materialization could be felt under my skin. As if time has stopped, Jason and Jupiter stood frozen solid, only to stare at the spear with terrified expressions planted on their faces and were shaking nonstop from the intense power that could rival even Zeus' master bolt. It was fearful sure, but glancing back at the reactions of the father son duo, I concluded that there must be more to that spear than just the power it exuded.

Slowly, the giant advanced forward, taking all the time he wanted with Jupiter and Jason still frozen in place, affected by the overwhelming malevolence and hostility greatly. Stopping himself right in front of the duo, Porphyrion began smugly as he addressed Jason. "Remember I told you that I have a way to defeat you and your father when I was resurrected?" However, Jason gave no response, either he didn't hear him, or he couldn't answer under the influence of the weapon, petrified as he was.

"Nonetheless," Porphyrion continued, still eyeing Jason. "I will start by killing you and then your father." I had only blinked once, but in that moment of inattentiveness, Porphyrion speared Jason's body through the chest with the golden spear. Even still, no reaction could be seen from the boy, as if he had long since been slain. An intense but familiar tug could be felt in my stomach.

I snapped.

Seeing two of my friends die successively in front of my eyes unleashed all the guilt, anger, and pain that had been piling within me ever since the beginning of the first Titan war. I promised. I promised myself that I would not allow anyone else to die, yet at this very moment, Frank was lying in a pool of his own blood and Jason was impaled on the spear in Porphyrion's hands. Despair washed over me but disappeared as fast as it came, replaced by a wave of cold fury.

It felt as if I was taken over by a demon. My thoughts clouded over, and only the thought of slaying any enemy in front of me remained. After sinking my blade into Polybotes' body, sending his essence back to into the pit, I located my text target through my reddened vision. Kicking off the ground and dashing towards Periboia with an almost inhuman speed, the giant could only watch in horror as Riptide pierced through her body before she could even defend herself. Before she could regenerate, Aphrodite whirled a cloud of pink smoke and evaporated her right on the spot, leaving only a pile of golden dust behind. Without any delay, I charged towards Mimas, giving him the same treatment with my blade sticking out of his throat this time. Hephaestus gave me a nod of thanks, and he too, dumped a pile of molten iron on top of the giant's head.

After the initial shock from my blitzkrieg-like attack by the defeat of two giants within a minute, the other giants finally snapped out of their trance and glared at me furiously. Abandoning the idea of slaying their counterparts, the rest of the giants decided that killing me would be the best idea right now. Soon enough, I was surrounded in a circle, but I gave no indication of fear or unease. Strategically speaking, encircling me put me in quite an advantageous spot since one-on-one fights became the only possible scenario. If they chose to attack me all at once, then they would risk any sort of friendly fire and through the mist of the chaos, I could then dodge around and take them down. However, this also meant that there was a chance that I could get caught in between their attacks, accidental or not.

Plus, I lost everything already. Nothing matters to me anymore.

"Percy - ," was as far as Poseidon gone before I raised my hand and cut him off.

With an expressionless tone, I ordered, "Don't. This is going to be between me and them. By the end of the day, one of us will die." All the gods and demigods were all looking at me worriedly, but no one dared to say otherwise.

Amused by my choice of declining the help from the gods, Porphyrion mused out loudly, "So, the great Perseus Jackson think he can take on all of us at once." By the end, the king of giant began to laugh heuristically at my incredulous declaration, but was soon replaced by a snarl. "Let's see what you're made of then."

Ignoring him completely, I launched towards Clytius with a faint glow of sea green surrounding my body. With his dagger ready in his hands, he met my strike with incredible force behind it, forcing me to stumble back a bit to regain my footing. While I recomposed myself, the giant went on the offensive, hacking and slashing wildly with all his might, but was unable to touch the edge of my shirt.

I was simply a lot more agile than he was.

With my battle senses, I instinctively dove to my right, only to realize that purple flames had scorched where I was just a second ago. It seemed that Enceladus decided to join the fight, supporting his brother by breathing out fire from long range. Realizing that he was not getting some help, Clytius smiled at me wickedly, which I returned with a blank stare, but was also grimacing a bit. Porphyrion was still observing this entire fight from the side, which was also concerning, seeing as he may come out in the very end after I was exhausted from taking down his brethrens.

The only option for me was to take them out fast without exerting too much energy. Instead of fighting head on and exchanging blows like with Clytius, flanking and finding openings would serve as better options. Once again picking myself up from the ground, I charged at Clytius again. Right when I was within his arm's reach, I feinted a swing to the right, baiting him into shifting his balance to meet my attack, while I slid in between his legs at the last second and slashed his ankles in one swift motion. Immediately, I turned around to land a finishing blow on the now immobile giant, but was forced to dive to the side once again to avoid the attack from Enceladus. The flame still managed to hit me, but no serious injury was dealt, at least not on me. Even though the attack was aimed at me, my last second dodge made Clytius take most of the damage. Seeing her opportunity, Athena sent a blast of energy at the burning giant, which he too, turned into a pile of golden dust.

I turned to Athena and gave her a nod of thanks. Porphyrion no longer had an amused expression. After watching me taking down two more giants, nervousness and agitation slowly crept up to him.

Of course, things never end up the way I wanted.

Right when I was about to attack the king of giants, the ground began to shake violently, knocking me off of my feet. Confused, I looked at Poseidon, assuming he was the one causing the earthquake, but he too, had a puzzled expression.

"Ah," Porphyrion managed to get out after realizing the cause of this phenomenon. "You fought well, I'll give you that, but you lost." I stared at him with narrowed eyes, not entirely sure how this earthquake has anything to do with them winning the war.

"Raise mother," Porphyrion bellowed as he kneeled down to one knee. "Alas, the final blood of Olympus has been spilled." With widened eyes, I looked to my injured arm, realization along with panic finally hit me. Even though Enceladus's attack wasn't fatal, he still managed to make me bleed, and without me knowing, the earth took in my blood with great pleasure.

The rumbling sound along with the intensity of the earth shaking began to increase as time went on. Everyone was on the ground, trying to stabilize themselves by finding their central balance, and at the same time maneuvering around from the cracking ground and dodging from the falling tree branches. Earthen hands were appearing from the ground, either tossing the demigods around or killing them through suffocation. Some unfortunate ones were eaten up by the cracked ground, disappearing into Gaia's realm almost instantly. Unsurprisingly, the giants were not affected by any of the disastrous event that was unfolding. In fact, they were chasing down helpless demigods who were too busy trying to stay alive from the wrath of the earth.

As soon as the rumbling died down, a deep but clear voice spoke up. "I have awoken from my slumber, and to celebrate, I'm going to make everything back to its original state. Forget about the tall, majestic building. What can it do in the presence of nature?" The anonymous voice, which I could safely assume it was Gaia, declared her future plans for the planet. It wasn't as simple as destroying the gods, no, she wanted total annihilation of all living beings, and of course, to give earth a complete makeover.

"Ah, and of course," Gaia said in her ancient voice. "I need to meet my special guests." Right after she finished, an earthen hand shot up and grabbed me around the waist and lifted me high up in the air. Next to me was Annabeth, who was also struggling to break free from Gaia's grasp. Even though Gaia didn't have a distinct form, I was still able to feel a piercing gaze staring right back at me, making me extremely uneasy. "I'll make this easy for you," Gaia continued after scrutinizing the two of us. "Goodbye."

With a muffled scream, Annabeth's entire body was engulfed by the earth and was forcibly dragged down into the cracked ground, disappearing right before my eyes. I tried to scream, I tried to call out her name, but it was too late as an earthen hand also covered up my mouth.

Instead of getting dragged into the ground like Annabeth did, I was faced with a grinning Porphyrion, who had his spear in his hand. As if reading my thoughts, Gaia answered my confusion, "As for you, Perseus Jackson, I believe that my children would like to have some fun with you first." Here she gave a pause, and I swore if she had a face, she would be smirking right now. "After all, you did kill most of them by yourself."

Before I even realized, the spear that Porphyrion was holding not too long ago was driven deep into my shoulder. He ripped my right arm off of my torso when he twisted and retracted his weapon. The overwhelming pain that I received almost made me faint on the spot, but this wasn't over yet. The giant king severed all my limbs, while Enceladus was torching my entire body with purple flames. By then, I was hurting too much to fathom anything that was happening, but I did want them to finish this quickly.

"Alright," Porphyrion began with a sickening smile with blood tainted all over himself. "This is the end, Perseus." Using my last bit of strength, I opened my eyes and glared at the giant weakly. It didn't matter how much I tried, or how hard I fought, I still allowed my friends to die even after promising that I would save them. I was unresigned! I could not possibly accept this! There was so much that went right! We had been so close, only to be defeated like this!?

But in the end, everything fell apart. Despite myself feeling the anger boiling up inside me, there was practically nothing I could do beyond this point. I tried to unleash my powers and my inner rage, but my attempt was to no avail with the iron grip that Gaia had on me along with the loss of blood that was taking a huge toll on me.

Porphyrion walked up slowly and paused when there was still couple feet between the two of us. Pulling out a dagger from his waist and licking the tip of it, I knew what was about to come.

 _I was about to die._

The giant raised the glittering dagger, ready to deliver the final blow while I closed my eyes, and in an instant, memories and faces of them came rushing through my mind. I thought about my first quest with Annabeth and Grover. I thought about the time I spent at the roman camp and eventually the quest that lead us up to here. However, those memories could only increase the pain and guilt that I had been carrying all this time. They were all dead, and it was because of my inability to protect them. Well, I guess it was my time to join them, and even so, I didn't think I would have the courage to see their faces.

My thoughts were torn away when the sharp and cold dagger drove through my chest, and the last thing I knew of that time was pain and darkness.


	2. The First Night

_**Author's Notes:**_

 _Well, here is the next chapter. I will try to update as fast as possible. Most of story is planned out, except for some minor details, so all I have to do now is to type, which is easier said than done… Someone asked about pairings, and no, this is not a Percy x Artemis story. Sorry to disappoint you, but I feel like most of the stories I come across are something about guardian of the hunt that lead to Percy and Artemis falling in love. To be completely honest, I'm not too sure if there's going to be a pairing in this story. Sorry to disappoint again… I do have an idea, so you have to wait and find out yourself :D As always, thank you for reading. Follow, Favorite, or leave a review to give me feedback is very welcomed. Enjoy!_

 _*Spoilers*_

 _First thing first, this chapter is mainly to set up for future events, so it's not really interesting. For now, I will stick to the cannon, but I promise that things will be different very soon. Second thing I want to mention is that a big thing I want to focus on in this story is the aspect of the hero's fatal flaw. I think it has a lot of potential to be play around with, hence, character development._

 _Third thing I want to talk about is Percy Jackson. This Percy will be a bit OOC because this is his second life, meaning that he has matured and will do things and view things differently. And before you ask, yes, this Percy will be quite OP in the end, however, he will have a learning curve. Alright, as always, hope you enjoy!_

*Story Starts*

I'm going to be completely honest here, this really wasn't how I saw my day going. I mean, our odds of winning the war against Gaia was quite low, but I certainly didn't expect to be tortured and actually die in the end. Actually, on a second thought, I shouldn't even be surprised by this chain of events, seeing as how things would always go awry for me in the end. However, I didn't think that things would end up in destruction where I was forced watch all my friends and families die with my own eyes.

Then there was Annabeth.

The horrifying image of her getting engulfed by the earthen hands was something that would never be forgotten. The pair of grey, stormy eyes that I saw right before she disappeared was full of sadness and despair that no longer radiated bliss and joy. I never got a chance to say my goodbyes and sorrow to her or any of my friends, including Jason, Frank, and many other demigods that fought courageously in this war. It was obvious that none of them blamed me for their deaths, especially Annabeth, who would definitely slap me hard across the face if she ever found out about my guilt, but the sense of dread was impossible to be shaken off. The shackle called loyalty that chained to me tightly was both a curse for myself and a bliss to the people around me.

Initially, I didn't think the intense desire to care for and save my friends as a flaw, in fact, that very thought was outrageous to me. What was wrong in protecting them? How was saving people considered as a flaw? These were the questions that my immature self couldn't grasp.

Until now.

It was until now that Athena's warning after saving Annabeth from Atlas sunk into me. She pointed out that the most dangerous flaw was the one that was good under the right circumstances. Extreme personal loyalty was beneficial when it came to forming and keeping friendships or any kind of relationships due to the fact that betrayal was simply an incomprehensible concept to me. As a result, most people, and even myself included, would never consider loyalty as a flaw due to the essence of human nature, in which trust was a hard thing to be established. Knowing that you would never be betrayed was something that most or all people wanted.

Well, that was the bliss of personal loyalty, but it could quickly turn into a curse. The right circumstances that Athena mentioned may be referring to the time of peace. However, when it came to losing someone, the trait that everyone desired was now a flaw. Guilt would always pile up, and I would continuously place the blame of the world on my shoulders. Thoughts that 'I should've done more' or 'if only I protected them better' arose in my mind, along with many other what-ifs. Maybe if I was strong enough to defeat Atlas myself, then Zoe would still be alive with the hunters. Maybe if I was able to see through Luke from the very beginning, then Selena and Beckendorf would not be in Elysium right now, or maybe if I had held up my end of the promise and protected my friends, then Annabeth wouldn't be dead right now. If I had a chance, I was willing to sacrifice myself to the gods in exchange for everyone's happy and lively faces.

"Please don't think about sacrificing yourself," an ancient voice mused in my head, breaking my train of thoughts. The voice was too deep and also lacked the iconic British accent for it to be that of Charon's, besides, finding me in a sea of dead required too much effort for the lazy ferryman. I fluttered my eyes open in surprise and ascended into another level of shock when I took in the scenery before me. Fully expecting myself to be in the D.O.A recording studio with a bunch of other dead souls, I was instead greeted by an intense ray of gold that would make Apollo pale in comparison. Instinctively, I raised my arm over my eyes, trying to block out the shine, but was met with a very serious problem: I didn't have an arm. Scratch that, I didn't have a solidified body as I was basically transparent, floating in midair.

As if reading my mind, the mysterious voice spoke up, "Ah yes, as you noticed yourself, you died, so you're a ghost right now." After stating the obvious, it continued on. "Perseus Jackson, if you are willing to hear me out, I have a deal that I want to make with you." There could only be two explanations for the person to know my name. Either he was a divine entity or he was a monster, and judging by the fact that we lost the war not too long ago, I was leaning towards the former suspicion since all monsters should be busy celebrating their victory.

"I'm listening," I responded right back into the empty space, deciding that there was nothing else to lose, so might as well hear him out. I mean, I was dead, so the worst thing that could happen was probably Field of Punishment. "But first, who is it that I'm talking to exactly?" I voiced out my question. The identity of the person who I was talking to has to be known first because if it was someone who was helping Gaia, then I would have to reject the proposal no matter how tempting it may be.

When the lights dimmed down, a cloaked figure walked out with a staff in hand. It wasn't just an ordinary wooden staff, but one with an golden orb that seemed to warp reality spinning endlessly on top. Under the hood was a pair of golden eyes, shining brightly and radiating power. My initial thoughts as to his identity drifted to Kronos, who also possessed the same kind of orbs, but they differed from the Titan, the man in front of me emitted warmth instead of hatred and malice. His overall appearance reminded me of someone I knew, but the name was on the tip of my tongue.

Then it hit me.

"You aren't Dumbledore right?" I blurted out as I remembered the mortal movie that I watched with Annabeth couple months ago. The dirty grey robe along with the beard that trailed all the way down to the waist reminded me of the wizard in that film. I instantly regretted what I said, facepalming myself mentally at my ridiculous statement as I remembered that Dumbledore didn't have an hourglass necklace, let alone the golden eyes. To top it off, he was a wizard, not a divine entity.

"Dumbo- what?" The figure in front of me asked confusingly, and I waved him off, motioning him to disregard my comment. With a nod, he continued, "I guess people are right when they say you're dense. I'm Chronos, the Primordial God of time."

"So what is it that I can help you with, Lord Chronos?" I asked carefully this time. This was my first time speaking in front of a Primordial deity, and I couldn't help but feel a slight bit of nervousness in his presence. Not only that, since he and Kronos shared the same domain, the minor excitement that I had in the beginning was now replaced by skepticism. At the same time, I found it hilarious that I failed to recognize him after seeing the hourglass necklace and the pair of golden eyes.

"Since I have a request to make, please call me Chronos." The lord of the time insisted before he continued on. "As you know, the war is lost and Gaia now rules the world." I nodded in agreement and couldn't help but sigh at the outcome. Looking at me sympathetically, he went on. "The thing you don't know is that Gaia's plan of turning earth back to its original state will destroy the western civilization entirely, meaning that gods will all fade, including us primordials." I widened my eyes upon the revelation and couldn't help but feel responsible at the eventual extinction of humanity. My death was insignificant if I was able to save what mattered the most in the end, but that didn't happen. Because of my failure, the mortals, who were bystanders in this entire quarrel between the gods, would also face the consequence without knowing what hit them.

The guilt I I felt was brushed away at what Chronos had to say next. "Even now, I can feel myself fading. So Perseus Jackson," the lord of the time looked at me sternly. "If you are willing to accept, I will use my remaining power to infringe upon the laws that govern this world and reverse events that 'were' into events that 'may be'." It took a moment for the information to sink in and when it finally did, my jaw dropped a bit. Was I able to go back in time to make things right? My thoughts cut off as Chronos continued, "Return. As you will return under my power, you can be considered my champion. As such, I shall grant you a boon. May you enjoy the gift I have given you."

This, I acknowledged, may potentially be the single most life changing event to occur to me, but there was another question that I had in mind as I became more and more oriented with the sheer scale of what Chronos meant to do. "Why me? Why did you choose me out of everyone. I'm sure that you could ask another powerful demigod like Jason." I pointed out in confusion, which earned myself a chuckle from the primordial god.

"That is a valid question," Chronos nodded his head before continuing on. "You are loyal to a fault, Perseus. Your hero's path is to save and protect the ones you love and just as you believe in gods, perhaps it is time for us gods to believe in you." I sheepishly scratched the back of my head in embarrassment after hearing his reason.

"Yeah, you're right," I managed to get out and couldn't help but sigh. True, I never wanted any of this demigod nonsense. Maybe the idea of being a half god and have the ability over a certain element was exciting to mortals, but the chaotic events in this world made me wish for otherwise.

If I had a choice, I would rather be a mortal, studying normally in schools without having to destroy a classroom or a teacher that was actually a fury in disguise. My entire life was continuous training in order to have a better chance of surviving the merciless monsters out in the real world. After witnessing Bianca and Zoe's death, I realized that I needed to train harder to protect the people around me. To most men, power was equivalent to social status: the more you had, the higher up the ladder you were. In other words, the desire for power was purely based off of selfish reasons to achieve more fame and attention. For me, power was a mean to save and protect. I could care less about how people thought of me as long as my friends were well and alive.

"I accept this offer then, my lord," I said politely. "But what happens if I fail?"

Giving me a small shrug, Chronos answered, "If that is as the Fates decree to be the true end, then let it be so. Time would return back to its original path and everything will be erased. You and I, moreso, will be wiped from all existence for daring to break the Timeless Covenant."

I gulped down nervously at his casual revelation at the potential annihilation of humanity. Once again, the fate of the world was resting on my shoulders, and no different from last time, failure was not an option.

A confused look spread across my face when Chronos snapped his finger all of a sudden and moments later, three figures were flying in our direction, carrying something what seemed to be a person. Upon closer look, my rather perplexed thought morphed into that of surprised as I realized that the three flying figures were the Fates, and the body they were carrying was me. Not going to lie, it felt weird looking at my limbless body from a bird's eye view.

"Ah there it is," Chronos exclaimed while I looked at him confusingly. "That's your body Perseus, and all we have to do now is to put your soul back in there." I nodded in understanding but furrowed my brows right after when I realized that there was one more problem.

"Erm," I spoke up. "But what are you going to do with my missing limbs."

The lord of the time only stared at me strangely and waved his hand dismissively. "We put them back on, obviously."

I couldn't help but sigh at his response. I mean, he was not wrong about putting them back, but how was he going to do it? Perhaps regrow the limbs? I shook my head but couldn't help but chuckle and decided to wait and find out myself.

When the three Fates landed in front of us, Chronos nodded appreciatively. "Thank you for helping and please thank Nyx for me as well. Tell her that we will meet again some time to discuss more." The three sisters nodded and turned their attention to me. Looking at them only sent me chills down my spine as I recalled my first encounter with them on the busride home from Yancy Academy. Grover was terrified when he saw the thread of life being cut by Atropos, the Fate of Death, while I was utterly confused and couldn't understand how an old woman cutting a thread meant that I was doomed to die. What we didn't know was that the three sisters wasn't showing my fate, but Luke's. In the end, he died a hero's death: tragic but courageous.

"So uh," I began nervously when they were still staring at me. "Is there anything that I can do for you?" I asked politely. Offending Ares? No problem, since I could always whoop his ass again. But offending the Fate? I did not wish to have anymore unnecessary hardships in my life.

Finally deciding to break the awkward staring contest, Clotho, the Fate of Birth, spoke up. "Perseus Jackson," she began with a hoarse voice. "Your fate is no longer in our hands." Right when she finished, Lachesis, the Fate of Life, continued, "Not everyone can get a second chance. We will be watching you on your quest to defeat Gaia again. And if you fail again," Atropos cut in to finish the last part, and I swore I could see a smirk on her face. "I will not hesitate to cut your thread of life."

I couldn't help but gulped down nervously at her remarks. At the same time, I knew that this was a chance that shouldn't even be offered to me. By going back in time, I would be breaking a lot of ancient laws that could possibly doom my own fate. I guess it made sense when the Fates said that they no longer have the control over my life.

"Well," I managed to get out, trying to come up with a response. "I guess I'll see you soon?" I ended by chuckling nervously. In response, the three old ladies gave me a nod and disappeared.

"Now that they are gone," Chronos said. "There's only one last thing to do." I looked at the Lord of the Time in confusion when he began to chant quietly. After couple of seconds, my transparent outline began to glow softly, slowly merging with the physical body that the Three Fates brought earlier.

"Woah," I exclaimed when the entire process was completed, and it did feel good to be back in my own body instead of floating around in space.

"You have everything you need now, Percy," Chronos began seriously. "Now is it up to you to complete the deal." He paused a bit and gave me a mischievous look, which I didn't find it particularly comforting. "When you're awake, there will be some surprises awaiting you." Before I could even respond, he gave me a wink and snapped his fingers, and for the second time today—or was it even the same day? Hard to tell when you're dead—darkness was the last thing I remembered.

*Scene Break*

"Percy," a familiar voice yelled desperately. It sounded so far away, yet it felt like it was right next to me. My vision was blurry and my other senses were definitely distorted, additionally, the whole world seemed to be spinning around me, making it near impossible for me to comprehend my surroundings.

"Get up, Percy!" The voice screamed again. "Take Grover and run!" Wait a second, Grover? Now that got me confused. Get Grover and run? Run to where? Where am I?

Taking a deep breathe and pushing those questions behind, I slowly regained my own bearings. I blinked a few times to make sure that I wasn't dreaming because the event that was unfolding in front of me happened exactly six years ago. Maybe this was the surprise that Chronos was referring to.

In this dark and raining night, an exploded Camaro was flipped to my right with its windows all shattered into pieces. The trees around us weren't looking so great either as they were all torn down by the gigantic creature that was standing few feet away from us. Laying motionlessly next to me was the satyr that I first befriended while I was at Yancy Academy, Grover Underwood. As if time has stopped, I paused when I saw the other person. It had been ages since I last saw my mom, and I couldn't help but tear up a little inside.

"Stop staring Percy!" my mom shouted, snapping me back to reality. Right, the number one priority right now was to escort Grover back to Camp Half-Blood and fight off the Minotaur that almost killed my friend and family last time. At the thought of that, my blood began to boil as I stared down the first monster that I slayed years ago, and at the same time, a vicious feeling of deja vu coursed through my body.

I remembered I was confused and scared when this mythical creature appeared in front of me last time, threatening to take our lives. By sacrificing herself, my mom made sure that Grover and I made it past the boundary line safely before getting herself kidnapped by the Lord of the Dead right after. Nonetheless, the same thing won't happen again. No longer confused or petrified by this monster in front of me, I was ready to send him back to where he came from.

And of course, my demigod luck, or more accurately defined as misfortune, prevailed once again.

As I reached down into my pocket to find my trustworthy pen, my hand was met with nothing. The enchanted sword would always find its way back to my pocket, and I couldn't understand why it failed this time. My thoughts were racing, trying to come up with a logical reason that could possibly lead up to this. Maybe Chronos wasn't able to or forgot to send the sword back in time with me? Or maybe I just needed to give it a few more minutes for Riptide to reappear in my pocket?

The constant moaning and groaning from Grover was distracting my thoughts and I really wanted to kick him so hard that he would fly and crash into the Big House where Chiron and Dionysus were in, probably playing poker or some other card game. At that moment, I widened my eyes and bit back a curse as realization finally hit me. Chronos didn't mess up, and Riptide wouldn't show up in my pocket no matter how long I waited. At this moment of time, Chiron still had the sword and would only give it to me before I left for the first quest. Therefore, as of right now, I was weaponless and to make matters worse, the Minotaur in front of me was out for some snacks.

Getting Grover into safety was priority. His lack of consciousness and mobility would only hinder me, putting all of us in danger when there was an extra person, or satyr in this case, that I needed to keep an eye out for. At the same time, I was a bit hesitant because that would leave my mom out in the open to fend for herself, and I was not willing to put her life in danger again. Without a weapon, the situation was not favorable, and I had a bad feeling that history would repeat itself.

"Mom," I yelled, finally made up my mind. "I'm going to drag Grover into the camp. I will come back for you." Without another word, I knelt down and tried to carried the unconscious half goat, half human, bridal style, but quickly realized another problem.

"Actually," I spoke up again. "I think I might need your help!" I thought with the years of training I had, picking up Grover would be a piece of cake. How wrong was I. Simply walking or moving any part of my body felt weird or foreign, to be exact. In other words, it felt like I was learning how to move my limbs again, relearning how to use those muscles for specific tasks.

At my request, my mom sprinted towards me, while I dropped Grover back on the ground, flinging one of his arm behind my neck and the other behind my mom's. My heart sunk with every step that got us closer to the camp's border as I knew that the inevitable was bound to happen.

"Percy," My mom managed to get out while collecting her breath after we had reached the top of the hill. A sense of nostalgia washed over me when I bathed in the scenery before my eyes, reminiscing about the place that I once called home. "Go now! I can't go any further. Run for help!"

Before I could answer, the Minotaur grabbed my mom from the waist, squeezing her tightly, and the next thing I knew, she disappeared in a golden light. I knew she was still alive, only to be sent to Hades' realm as a hostage and later used as a bargaining chip against me for his missing Helm of Darkness. Despite knowing all that, I couldn't forget the pained expression that she had when the monster was crushing her. Even after having a second chance with all my memories remained, I still couldn't protect my mom from Hades' grasp. At least knowing that her life wasn't at risk right now was enough for me, but I was still extremely disappointed at myself.

After sending my mom in a one way trip to Hades' realm, the Minotaur growled ferociously, turning its attention towards me. Making sure that Grover was safe behind the boundary line, I got up and slowly advanced towards the monster.

"Let's see what you got, Ground Beef," I grumbled quietly, only loud enough for me to hear. The fight would be difficult without a weapon, but definitely not impossible with my demigod powers. Luckily for me, the Minotaur only knew how to charge in a straight line, allowing me to deviate a much simple plan unlike fighting a hydra or drakon.

With a dignifying roar, the bull charged straight at me, and with my monster fighting skills that had cummulated throughout the years of training, I side stepped the very last second and dodged the strike. Sluggish was the first thing that came into my mind after the Minotaur ran past me as I barely rolled to the side in time to evade the fatal blow. After missing me the first time, the Minotaur glared at me venomously before readying himself for round two. I took a deep breath and drew the godly powers residing within me. Using the rain to my advantage, I concentrated all the liquids around me into small but dense pellets, all pointing towards the Minotaur who began to charge again. With a wave of my arm, I fired my water bullets, but to my dismay, the impact was deflected when the monster raised its arm. Though my attack was able to deal out some flesh wounds, it still wasn't enough to slow him down, and unfortunately, my hostility only further enraged the bull in front of me.

Then next thing I knew, I was airborne and had to brace myself before I crashed into the trees behind me. Before I had time to collect myself, my battle senses told me to roll to the side to avoid being crush into a human pancake. Cold sweat dripped down from my forehead as I noticed the crater that was created few seconds ago not too far away. I forced myself to get up again when I heard the sound of dirt being kicked back; He was ready for round three.

To my surprise, it seemed that my body was having trouble to keep up with the physical stress that I'd been exerting up to this point. A small fight against a brainless opponent such as the Minotaur should be a piece of cake, additionally, after years of endurance training, it didn't make sense that I was being worn down so quickly. I shook my head and refocus on the fight, decided that pondering on those questions would not help me whatsoever.

"Alright then," I muttered to myself. "Let me introduce you to the son of the earthshaker then." Right as the beast began to charge, I called upon the other power within me and stomped the ground hard with my foot, generating a mini earthquake that instantly unbalanced the bull. No doubt that the camp itself was feeling this disturbance, but I could always blame it on Poseidon if they questioned me. Since the King of Gods and the Lord of the Sea were having a quarrel of their own regarding to the missing lightning bolt, directing some frustration to the mortal world by unleashing couple earthquakes or storms was something that Poseidon did frequently.

Allowing the shake to continue, I slowly advanced to the Minotaur who was still struggling to regain his balance. Without any other word, I drew the moisture in the air and hardened the water into an ice spear before driving it through the monster's chest, disintegrating him on the spot. I released my control over my powers, but couldn't stop myself from collapsing onto my knees in exhaustion. Just like last time, I passed out on the hills, and the last thing I remembered was Grover mumbling something about enchiladas and couple campers screaming down below us.

*Scene Break*

Demigod dreams were usually vivid and could often foreshadow upcoming events. Say for example, I was dreaming about eating blue pancakes at the dinner pavilion with other campers sitting in their respective tables, devouring food while chatting with their siblings. It was a rather pleasant sight but of course, nightmares always followed closely behind.

It wasn't surprising at all that my dream was displaying an ongoing argument between the two sons of Kronos. The throne room was completely empty with the exception of Zeus and Poseidon, with the former one sitting in his throne and the latter one pacing back and forth in the middle with his arms folded behind. No conversation was being made, and the only sound that could be heard was the crackling noise coming from the hearth.

"So," Zeus finally spoke up, glaring at his brother while doing so. "Do you want to explain why there is a demigod of yours? Especially after we swore upon to not sire anymore demigods."

"Might I remind you," Poseidon responded with a calm yet dangerous tone. "You were the one who broke the oath first. What was her name again? Ah, Thalia, right?" Poseidon taunted, enraging the King of Gods, who stood up furiously while slamming the arms of his throne.

"YOU DARE-" Zeus snapped angrily, but Poseidon cut him off in the middle of the sentence.

"I dare challenge you and your pride? Yes, I am" Poseidon admitted. "Your pride doesn't allow you to see your own mistake. Your pride also blinds you, thinking that I would steal your Master Bolt."

"And just why wouldn't you do so?" Zeus snarled with a challenging voice, which made Poseidon gripped onto his trident tightly. If only I could speak or transmit my thoughts in my dreams, then I could easily clear up this misunderstanding by telling them that Luke was being manipulated by Kronos to start a civil war between the gods.

I was scared that the God of Earthquakes and Seas would smash his trident and unleash natural disasters upon the mortal world, instead, he glared at Zeus and spatted, "I will make you regret what you said. If you're wrong, oh mighty King of Gods, then I demand an apology in front of the entire council." With that declaration, Poseidon dissolved into a sea breeze, leaving Zeus sending down bolts of lightning in fury.

Suddenly, I felt someone shaking my body violently, and I couldn't help but groaned and opened my eyes. I yelped in surprised when a familiar pair of stormy grey eyes greeted me. Those were the eyes that I would never forget, and the last time I saw them, they were full of pain and despair.

Looking at me in anticipation was Annabeth, and I knew exactly what she was going to ask. It was our first conversation, though it ended up with me saying something along the lines of "What?", it was still quite memorable.

"Yes, yes" I began and tried to wave my arm dismissively, but only to find that my muscles were all protesting at being abused last night. "You are going to ask me about summer solstice." The daughter of Athena widened her eyes in surprised.

"How do you know? But never mind that. What is going to happen?" she asked in amazement and prompted me to continue.

Struggling to get myself up from the bed, I asked her for help. "You wanna help me get up? Take me to Chiron, and your questions will be answered." Annabeth hesitated but decided to follow through what I asked.

WIth her assistance, I managed to get out of the bed, but found myself to wobble greatly, but thankfully, Annabeth noticed and allowed me to place my arm around her shoulder for support. An intense ray of sunlight hit me as I walked out from the rather dim room. Campers were all busy doing their chores or training, and in front of me, was a table with three figures sitting around it. The first one I noticed was the centaur and my mentor, who was busy reading a newspaper. Right next to him was the god that I disliked the most out of all Olympians. Instead of reading a newspaper like Chiron, Dionysus was flipping through a wine magazine while sipping on a cup of diet coke in a wine glass. The last figure who was sitting at the other end of the table was my friend, Grover, who was stealing nervous glances at the other two present with him.

"Ahem," Annabeth coughed and drew everyone's attention, except for the God of Wine, unsurprisingly. Chiron put down his newspaper and looked at me, while Grover widened his eyes and bleated, "Percy! You're alive!" His enthusiasm disappeared as fast as it came when he looked back at Dionysus. "I mean," Grover quickly added. "I'm sorry about your mom."

Chiron gave Grover a meaningful glare, and the already anxious satyr was no in full panic mode. "Oh gods," Grover palmed his face and began sobbing. "I didn't mean to say that. I'm sure your mom is still alive."

Thankfully, Chiron interrupted to save me from confronting him. "Ah I see our new recruit is awake!" Chiron said cheerfully. "And Grover, why don't you go check up with cabin eleven to see if they can make room for Percy here." With a nod, Grover got up and left without another word.

"Alright Percy," Chiron continued with a serious tone. "I know a lot had happened, so how are you feeling right now?"

"I'm not sure," I answered. I knew full well that Chiron was asking me about the Minotaur, but I decided to give him an ambiguous answer and played along. "What exactly happened to my mom?"

I could see Chiron grimaced a bit, but he quickly reassured me, "Percy my boy, I'm sure your mother is still alive." I nodded grimly but motioned him to continue. "I know this might seem to be shocking to you, but remember the Greek Gods and stories we went over during class?" I nodded again. "Well, they are all real."

The first time when I was told that Greek mythologies were not legends, but real facts, I was stuck in denial for a very long time. This time around, I merely shrugged, which earned myself a surprised look from Chiron.

"I mean," I began carefully. "That will explain my missing math teacher, Mrs. Dodds right?"

Shifting uncomfortably, Chiron nodded his head, "You are correct, but I was hoping that the Mist will be strong enough to hide the truth from you. But I guess you are still able to figure it out."

"Yeah," I told him. "But it's still hard to believe that the gods are still alive." I quickly added in the end to try to sound as surprised as possible. "So is this Dionysus, the wine dude?" At my remark, the God of Wine peaked up from his magazine and made eye contact with me for the first time.

"You mortals don't know anything at all," Dionysus muttered before he turned his attention back to his readings. "And don't call me that again, Peter Johnson. If you do, I'll turn you into grapevines and harvest you when you're ripe." I merely rolled my eyes at his threat, and I was glad that he didn't seem to notice.

"Uh, why don't you go follow Annabeth while she gives you a tour of the camp? She seems to be waiting," Chiron suggested, his face was covered with worries.

I gave the old centaur a nod of thanks and found my way to the daughter of Athena, who was sitting on the porch with a book in her hand.

"Hey," I began awkwardly, unsure what was I supposed to say. For some strange reasons, I felt nervous around her. "Erm, Chiron said you will give me an orientation."

Closing her book and looking up at me with those stormy grey eyes, the daughter of Athena studied me a bit and before she got a chance to say anything, I continued, "Right, I know I drool in my sleep, you don't have to do that."

Staring at me with shock, no doubt wondering how I've been practically reading her mind, Annabeth stammered out, "R-Right. Follow me this way." I hummed in delight and couldn't stop myself from smirking a bit, which earned myself a confused look from her.

"What's so funny," she said defensively.

"Oh, it's nothing," I reassured her. "It's just that the look on your face was pretty funny."

"Yeah," Annabeth replied in a grumpy tone. "We will see who's laughing by the end of the day." With that, she marched forward with balled fists and arched shoulders, reminding me of an angry cat that used to hang around near my apartment. Unknowingly, a small grin appeared on my face, and I thought to myself, this was going to be fun.

"So this is the mess up where all of us eat," Annabeth pointed out and continued on walking. She seemed to be quie annoyed from the fact that I was mocking her, so the majority of this orientation was immerse in an awkward silence, and she only spoke up when we walked past key locations in the camp. When we walked by the climbing lava wall, she pointed at it and succinctly said something like "this is where you climb" before moving on.

As we made our way to the cabins, more and more campers stopped their chores and stared at us, or to be specific, me. Once Annabeth returned them with her own glare, they all picked up what they were working on, except for the Ares' cabin.

"Annabell," a huge and stocky girl walked up with five others trailing behind her. "Who is this little punk?"

"It's Annabeth," the daughter of Athena said through gritted teeth. "This is Percy Jackson, our new camper. Go sharpen some spears and leave us alone, Clarisse." Clarisse and I had an interesting friendship. The first few years, her entire cabin hated me for defeating their father in combat and would make things as difficult as possible for me, but as time went on and the Titan war came along, we managed to set aside our dislike for each other in order to defeat Kronos. Ever since then, Clarisse had been my spar partner for the next couple of months until I was kidnapped by Hera and sent to Camp Jupiter.

I watched the entire scene unfold with amusement. The exact thing happened to me when I first came to the camp, and it ended up with me blasting Clarisse with some toilet water, and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy that.

"Oh? That's him?" Clarisse challenged with a raised eyebrow and her expression slowly morphed into an evil grin, and I knew exactly what was coming once she drew her electric spear. "I heard he took down the Minotaur by himself. Let's see what he got, eh?" With a small flick of her wrist, she signaled her siblings to rush forward, and instinctively, I ran.

No, I wasn't running away because I was afraid that some children of Ares would embarrass me in front of everyone. In order to blast Clarisse with a mouthful of toilet water again, I would need to head for the bathroom. Since I didn't have a weapon and wanted to conceal my identity as a son of the sea god as long as possible, fighting them straight on was not an option. Besides, which demigod could draw moisture out of thin air without proper trainings? If I summoned a gallon of water out of nowhere, it would make things very complicated for me.

After finally making into the bathroom, I quickly found myself to be cornered with Annabeth fidgeting her fingers, looking very troubled. "So uh, you know this is a guy's bathroom right, so it's kind of off limit for you," I began accusingly.

"Oh wow," one of Clarisse's sibling facepalmed herself. "I'm so so sorry. I hope you don't tell Chiron about this." A round of laughters went off and I gave out a sigh.

"Well," I said as I scratched the back of my head. "I guess I have no other option."

Clarisse grinned at me and nodded sympathetically, "You're right. You have no other option besides getting your ass kicked right here." As they charged at me, I did the second most natural thing. I screamed.

Well, screaming was a planned distraction for what I was about to do next. A familiar tug was felt in my stomach, and for the second time, all the toilets exploded and I willed the water around me to blast Clarisse and her siblings in their faces. Annabeth watched the entire scene with horror, and I couldn't tell if she was terrified with the fact that I just stood up against the biggest bully in the camp, or the fact that we might get punished later on by Chiron and Mr. D.

Before Clarisse could recover, I stumbled out of the bathroom and looked at Annabeth, who was eyeing me strangely, with a surprised look. "What is it," I said defensively, putting in the best effort to hide my act. "I don't know what happened there. I don't know why the toilet exploded." I felt a bit guilty for lying, but if Chiron ever figured out, then there was a good chance that I would no longer be placed in the Hermes cabin.

Eyeing me one last time as if not buying my lie, the daughter of Athena shook her head and said, "Nothing. Let's get going."

Once again, the short walk to cabin eleven was in a complete silence, and I felt bad for making fun of her earlier. She introduced me to the twelve different cabins starting from cabin number one at the top of the "U" and slowly made our ways down the numbers.

"Hey Annabeth -," was as far as I got before she cut me off.

"We're here," she announced and looked at me. "Sorry, what were you going to say?"

Well, we never got to that part because right when I was about to apologize, a tall, handsome boy with a sandy cropped blonde hair and a mischievous smile opened the door as if he was expecting our arrival.

"Welcome," he greeted me with a warm smile. "My name is Luke Castellan, the head counselor of cabin the Hermes' cabin."

Alas, I finally met the guy that I wanted to talk to the most.


	3. The Second Night

_**Author's Notes:**_

 _Alright, so after rereading my previous chapter, I feel like the flow of the story was a bit fast. It felt as if I was rushing it, so I'm going to try to slow things down a bit. First off, thank you for reading my story. I'll try to update as fast as possible. Not gonna lie, inspirations just keep coming for me, meaning that I'll be typing a lot. I have few things to say about this chapter. Yes, this is another filler to set up future events. I tried making it a bit more interesting and some actions towards the end. I'm not going to spoil anything, so just read on and find out yourself. As always, thank you for reading!_

 _Check my profile to know when I'll be updating!_

*Story Start*

 _No...no...no… ANNABETH NO!_

Cold sweets beaded down my forehead as I jolted awake from the nightmare that I was having. It didn't matter that this was my second life and that my friends were all alive, flashbacks of their motionless bodies covered with blood still resonated strongly in my head.

In silence, I cautiously removed the thin blanket that Luke provided for me and tiptoed my way out of the cabin, making sure that I didn't wake anyone up in the process. Luke… The son of Hermes gave off the exact same vibe like the first time I met him. He was genuine and warm, in a manner of how a big brother should look after his siblings, in fact, he also stole some toiletries for me, which was incredibly nice of him. But this time around, I wasn't planning to be fooled by his deception, and I would do anything to make things right.

The night skies were slowly being tainted orange by the dawn, where Artemis was relieved from her duty only to be taken over by Apollo. No one was awake as a result of extensive training during the previous day, making this the perfect opportunity for me to clear my mind and make plans for my next course of action. I chuckled a bit when I tried to imagine how Annabeth would react if she realized what I was doing. It would no doubt be something along the lines of "Oh my gosh, Seaweed Brain is making plans? Does this mean that Apollo is no longer bragging about his archery skills?"

The main cause of the second Titan war stemmed from the feelings of neglect that the minor gods and goddesses felt from the Olympians. Not only that, demigod children also felt abandoned by their Olympian parents, and to make matters worse, all unclaimed children of gods were placed in the Hermes cabin. Due to ancient laws, divine entities were not allowed to interfere with mortal affairs, often leaving half-bloods vulnerable to monsters attack prior to any sort of proper trainings. All of this was understandable, but it didn't mean that the gods should leave their children wondering who their godly parent was. Excuses such as too many affairs with mortals or as simple as "I'm very busy" finally led Luke to betray the Olympians and join forces with Kronos in hopes for a revolution.

To prevent this war from happening, I would have to convince Luke to stop supporting Kronos. The only reason why I wanted to be placed in the Hermes cabin was to get closer to Luke in order to put my plan in action. There was no room for failure, so I would need all the help I could get and every resource I could get ahold of.

Unknowingly, I had been pacing around the camp and somehow managed to make my way to the Big House. To my surprise, the lights were on, and my curiosity urged me to figure out who was also up at this hour.

"Hello Percy," a voice addressed me right as I entered. "I see that you're awake. What's the matter? Can't sleep?"

Chiron was in his wheelchair form, reading a book while sipping on some tea. Thankfully, Mr. D was either still sleeping or was off chasing some wood nymphs, making things a lot less awkward for me. I still didn't know how to feel about him. He was annoying in both Greek and Roman aspects. For the most part, his apathetic attitude towards demigods and this camp in general displeased me a lot, but at times, he would also assist us when we were in a dire situation, such as the time when we were fighting the twin Giants in Rome. I guess as the God of Theatre, it was his job to make his entry as dramatic and as clutch as possible.

"Yeah," I admitted to the old centaur and he gave me a sympathetic look. "I had a nightmare, so I decided to walk around to clear my head."

Nodding his head in understanding, Chiron spoke up while gesturing the open spot right across him. "I see. Take a seat, there's something I want to talk to you about." I made a humming noise and did what he asked and sat down.

"Tea?" Chiron offered, to which I nodded and took the cup that he just poured. We sat there in silence for a bit as we both enjoyed our drinks, though my ADHD did not like the peaceful atmosphere so finally, I spoke up.

"So what is it that you want to talk about?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Ah," Chiron set his tea down and looked at me sincerely. "Percy, my boy, I was just wondering if there's something you would like to tell me?"

I paused it bit and decided to answer his question with a question. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, something about you feels different," he explained and I met his gaze straight on without wavering. "The way you're acting is different from the times you were at the academy."

"Such as?" I prompted him to continue. "Sorry, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that."

"Never mind that," Chiron shook his head and took another sip from his cup. "But please, Percy, let me know if something is wrong."

"Thank you and I will do as you asked," I reassured him. Chiron would always be the caring mentor to demigods that I remembered. Truly, this sort of security that supported all demigods alike was what made him so trusting, and make no mistake I had thought that I should tell Chiron about my true circumstances, but the stakes were far too high as of right now. Chiron would no doubt, if unknowingly, interfere in these matters if I told him the truth about the lightning thief, thereby ruining the small advantages I possessed. Forcing myself to push down such desire, instead, I told Chiron about a dream I had. "I did have a dream about Zeus and Poseidon arguing over a missing item."

"How did you know?" Chiron eyed me carefully and asked.

"I had a dream and it seems that Zeus' lightning bolt is missing," I explained. It seemed that my explanation was enough to put the centaur at ease. _For now._

"Yes, I'm afraid you are correct," Chiron gave out a sigh and continued on. "Though there's not much we can do. No one seems to know who the thief is." I fought back the urge of unraveling the truth and decided that I would have to confront Luke first before making any rash moves. I wanted to tell him that I knew who the culprit was, but decided against it because I had to confront Luke first. If Chiron figured out and alerted the son of Hermes, he would flee the camp and leave me no other way of approaching him.

From a distance, the conch shell sounded loudly, and I realized that my peaceful early morning was coming to an end. At least it was good while it lasted.

"Well Percy," Chiron concluded while slowly transformed himself into his centaur form. "I guess it's breakfast time. You should go meet up with your cabin mates before they get too worried about your whereabouts." The old centaur paused a bit and eyed me carefully. "And please keep our little conversation off the record. I don't want to frighten other campers."

"Understood," I acknowledged and got up from my seat. "Then I'll catch you later, Chiron." After waving my hand, I jogged out of the Big House and headed straight to cabin eleven, in hopes of catching them on the way. Well, it turned out that Luke was still doing a head count and once he spotted me, he waved and smiled at me.

"Ah," Luke called out cheerfully. "There you are Percy. I was afraid that the harpies ate you for breakfast. I'm glad that you're still in one piece."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," I apologized. Even though they didn't seem to care, I still felt a bit bad for delaying all of them.

"It's no big deal," Luke reassured me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. "Come on, I'm sure you're hungry." He then turned his attention to the others in the cabin and yelled, "Eleven, fall in."

The entire cabin filed into the dining pavilion and unsurprisingly, all other campers were already seated, waiting for us to organize ourselves so that Chiron could give out his daily announcements. Naiads emerged from the lake while the wood nymphs drifted out from their trees, all heading to the mess hall to serve us. At the fireplace in the center of the pavilion, an eight years old girl was poking the fire with a stick, and I made a mental note to remind myself that I should drop by and say hi to Hestia. Rarely would anyone notice the unimposing, peaceful goddess, but I knew that it was due to her harmonious nature that the balance was kept in the otherwise tenuous and chaotic Olympian relations.

The entire pavilion was full of chattering sounds. The Aphrodite children were no doubt talking about the latest fashion and products that could make their skins become glittery. Annabeth sat few tables away from ours, and when she noticed our presence, I caught her blushing while stealing some glances at Luke. It all happened so quickly that the next moment she was already talking to her siblings again. As we walked past the Demeter cabin, the head counselor, Katie Gardner, smiled and waved at most of us, except for Travis and Connor Stoll, to which she glared at them annoyingly. The Stoll brothers noticed the gesture and had a silent conversation with each other, resulting with mischievous grins planting on both of their faces, and I could only imagine what type of prank they were planning this time.

After everyone was situated, Chiron pounded his hoof against the table, and the whole camp fell into a dead silent, all looking him expectantly.

"Ahem," the old centaur cleared his throat and started. "I know you're all hungry, so I'll make this short. Many of you have yet to meet him, so let's welcome our new camper, Percy Jackson." A round of applause roared through the pavilion with some whistling coming from Travis and Connor Stoll. Of course, the Ares cabin all glared at me venomously, still outraged about being splashed by toilet water, and I merely shrugged, quite amused, when Clarisse used her finger to draw a line across her neck. "Anyhow," Chiron continued when the clapping sounds died down and raised his glass. "To the gods!"

The overwhelming sweet and buttery smell registered before my other senses even registered that my favorite choice of breakfast was being served today. Warm and melted butter dissolved on the top, mixed with drops of maple syrups, leaving a trail of brown and yellow on the plate, no doubt heightening the flavor to the next realm. I thanked the nymph and took a plate from them before I got up from my seat and followed everyone to the fire. When it was my turn to drop a portion of my meal as an offering to the gods, I inaudibly murmured, "To Poseidon and Lady Hestia," before scraping a fourth of my food into the flames. Out of the corner of my eyes, the eight years old girl looked at me with surprise, but such expression was quickly replaced by a small but warm smile. I nodded and returned her with a smile of my own.

"So," Luke began as he sat down next to me. "How was your first night at camp? Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah," I told him, but feeling a bit of uncomfortable at the amount of attention he has been giving me. Under normal circumstances, I should feel glad that a brother like figure who would always look after me was now in my life, but after knowing his true colors and that everything I saw was merely a facade, it became quite difficult for me to accept his hospitality. "I mean, I was very exhausted by the end of the day, so I slept like a rock."

Luke chuckled a bit at my analogy, "Well, it's good that you got plenty of rest because this afternoon you're going to have a sword fighting lesson, and it's going to be taught by me." He gave me a mischievous grin, and I couldn't help myself to feel excited. Sword plays had always been my favorite ever since I first started camp, and well besides that, I wasn't really a dagger type person. Of course, archery would never be an option, considering that even Apollo's blessing failed to make any sort of improvement on me, and I doubt that anything would change in this second life.

Right by my side, Travis nudged me on the shoulder, "You should consider yourself lucky. Luke is probably the best swordsman of this century." I had to admit, Luke was very good with his sword. The fundamentals of my swordsmanship and style all originated from the son of Hermes, and was later on improved after I incorporated some of the Roman techniques that I learned while I was at Camp Jupiter.

"Oh really?" I raised my eyebrow and faked a surprised expression. Luke on the other hand, scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "That's wonderful. I'll be looking forward to it." The sluggishness from the fight against the Minotaur still lingered in the back of my head. Practicing against a skilled fighter such as Luke would be the quickest way for me to relearn all the muscle memory and get back into shape.

Connor looked at me as if I was crazy and murmured something along the lines of, "I've never seen someone want to get smacked around so badly," under his breathe. I ignored it and refocused my attention back to the plate of food in front of me. _Blue Pancakes. Yum!_

*Scene Break

After breakfast, each cabin were assigned to different training regimes, and today, we got to use the climbing lava wall in the morning and the combat arena in the afternoon. On my very first try couple years ago, I struggled big time where my t-shirt and the hair on my arm paid the price. This time, however, I was not planning to burn another orange shirt. Additionally, I was going to make good use of this exercise to rebuild my stamina and muscle strength.

There were different levels for this activity, but the cautious part of me decided to attempt the easiest stage first. Right when I was about to start my climb, I noticed Grover, who looked extremely distraught, was making his way towards my direction. Distracted by his thoughts, he didn't seem to notice me but continued on murmuring about something, so as his best friend, I decided to check up on him.

"Hey G-Man," I called out, snapping the satyr out of his trance. He looked confused at first, but after realizing that I was the owner of the voice, he waved and gave me a sad smile. "What's wrong?" I frowned and asked as I headed for him. Grover was someone who lacked a lot of confidence in himself, so reassurance from his friends were the only thing that could keep his fragile heart together.

"Hey Percy," Grover greeted me and gave out a long sigh. "I just had a talk with Mr. D and the council of Cloven Elders."

"And?" I prompted him to go on, despite knowing the entire situation already. "What did they say?"

"Well," he took a deep breath and gave out another sigh. "They said that I neither succeeded nor failed as a protector."

"That's not so bad," I told him.

"But at this rate, I'll never be able to get my Searcher's license," he cried out and began to sob. It was his dream to obtain the license to find the missing Lord of the Wild, Pan. The first time, his mission was considered as a failure when Thalia was turned into a pine tree by Zeus and ever since then, the daughter of Zeus had been protecting the camp's border. This time around, since he was carried across the border unconscious by me, it would be a stretch for the council to deem this as a successful mission.

"So what are you going to do now?" I asked the still sobbing satyr. "Did they provide any alternatives?"

Grover nodded and said, "Mr. D told me that I will have another chance to prove myself if I go on a quest and make it back with everyone alive."

I gave him pat on the shoulder. "There you have it. See? It wasn't as bad as you think," I told him optimistically and was glad that he finally stopped weeping.

"But getting a quest is so rare," Grover protested, and I had to suppress a grin. If only he knew what was coming. The license that he dreamed of and the quest that he desired would both come within his grasp shortly. "Plus, why would anyone want a useless goat like me."

Before he could resume on shedding more tears, I reassured him, "Hey, don't say that. You're not a useless goat like you claim. Also, _I_ need you, alright?" At that, he finally gave me a small smile. "Hey, why don't you come to the climbing wall with me. We'll see who can get to the top faster," I challenged him, in which he gave me smirk.

"You're so on Percy," he accepted my competition, seemingly refound his confidence for now. "Just letting you know, I'm a pro at this."

"We'll see about that," I returned with a smirk of my own as we both made our way to the climbing wall.

I had to admit, Grover was still as fast as ever. Maybe he got the advantage of having hoofs instead of feet, but the amount of time he needed to make it to the top was much faster than that of mine.

"Hey Percy," Grover taunted while sitting on the ledge. While I was still struggling to make my way to the top, the goat had already finished the course, dangling his hoofs on the side while throwing down some cheeky comments. "So what happened to beating me? Ah, don't forget, if you don't get up here soon, the lava is going to pour down," he warned me, but somehow I felt like he wanted to see me get scorched by burning lava.

"Shut up," I said through gritted teeth, trying to concentrate on climbing instead of his banters. Damn my body. Why did Chronos have to send me back into my twelve year old form instead of post Titan war instead of sending me back to the start of the Giant War? "Once I get up there, you're going to be in so much trouble."

"Oh no," Grover said with a mocking voice. "But I think you should worry about your clothes first."

"Huh?" I asked in wonder but my eyes quickly widened greatly when I realized what he was referring to. I let out a yelp when the sensation of the burning lava touched my skin, meanwhile Grover was busy laughing at my attempt to escape from the inevitable fate; Talking about good friends. Obviously, the magma only served as an additional challenge for the campers, so upon contact, the worst you can get was a burnt shirt with holes in it.

And that was exactly what I got.

"Hey do you smell that?" Grover asked once we both got back to the ground. A staircase was designed as an easy exit for the people to come down from the top instead of having to climb back down.

"Smell what?" I asked.

"The smell of barbeque," he stated matter of factly. "I'm surprised that you can't smell it, I mean, it's all over you."

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny," I groused at him. At the same time, I was utterly disappointed at my current endurance. "I'm going to go wash up and get a new change of clothes. I have sword training in the afternoon. Nice to see you G-Man."

"Alright," he said. "I'll see you soon." Before he trotted away, he added, "And Percy, thanks for cheering me up. I had a great laugh."

"No problem," I smiled in response. After he left, I picked up my arm and smelled it, wondering what Grover meant by the waves of barbeque scent that had been rolling off of me, and Hades, how right was he.

*Scene Break

"Alright," Luke began. "Since everyone is here, let's get started."

After cleaning myself up and getting rid of all the burnt smell, Luke gathered all of us once the conch horn sounded, signifying that lunch was about to be served. Just like every time, all the campers would sit with their siblings at their designated table, and once we were all seated, Chiron or Mr. D would make announcements, if any at all, then dryads would began to serve the plates. I was dozing off for the most part, but my ears perked up when Chiron mentioned that there was going to be capture the flag tonight, and I couldn't help but feel excited.

As usual, I scraped a fourth of my food into the flames as sacrifices for Poseidon and Hestia, but also wondered when Poseidon was going to claim me. Was it going to be right after capture the flag like last time?

"First," Luke continued on, patting the straw - stuffed dummy right next to him. "We will practice some stabbing and slashing techniques with these." Without any other words, everyone started moving, each claiming their own target practice and began their routines. Well, everyone except for me at least.

Luke told me that he would try to find a balanced blade for me to use, and he delivered by having a whole cart of various weapons right next to him, gesturing me to come forth as he picked out a random one for me to swing it a few times experimentally.

"It feels really awkward," I gave him my thought on the first blade. Not only that, the tip of the blade was heavy, making each swing to cost more stamina than needed in exchange for greater striking force. Besides that, the added weight at the end would also hinder any countermovements to bring the tip of the blade back up.

"Hmm," Luke hummed while scratching the bottom of his chin. "You're right. It does look really awkward on you. Alright, let's try this one then." Taking the sword in my hand and placed it back in the cart, this time around, Luke handed me a dagger.

"Uh," I began, trying not to sound rude. "Sorry, but I don't think I'd use a dagger. It's too short ranged for my tastes."

"I see," Luke nodded and took back the weapon he gave me. "That's ok. I will try to find another fitting sword for you." For the next couple of minutes, Luke let me try three more swords, but to his dismay, I turned down all of options. The choices he gave me either had too much weight in the hilt or was simply too long for my height. The added weight at the hilt, the forte of the blade would become too weak to push the opponent's weapon away, instead, you would find yourself on the defensive being pushed around for the majority of the time. Ultimately, the ideal blade allowed any swift and fluid movements during both offense and defense, and all of a sudden, I missed my trustworthy Riptide. Zoe really did a great job on crafting that blade, impressing even Heracles himself, who disliked to fight with anything but his bare hands.

Knowing that Luke would never find the best fit for me no matter how long it took, I spoke up apologetically, "I'm sorry for being so picky."

"It's alright," he told me. "Finding a balanced blade is important after all. Do you want to use one of them for now? We can go look for more or ask the Hephaestus cabin to customize one for you later on."

I nodded and took the first sword he asked me to try. Since it was my first time doing this, Luke decided to give me private lessons while others were practicing on their own.

"Swords are generally used for stabbing and hacking," Luke explained as he picked up his own choice of steel and demonstrated his point by slicing the dummy's head clean off. He then snapped his finger and magically a new one appeared. With lightning fast speed, he darted forward and stabbed the dummy right where the heart should be, tearing up the doll instantly. Even now, I was still amazed by his swordsmanship and swiftness in combat. The times we faced off each other in my previous life time always ended up with him beating me, and the only time that I ended up victorious was thank to Annabeth's danger and Luke's heroic sacrifice. "Why don't you give it a try," he offered and stepped to the side, snapping his fingers once again to refresh the target. "This is the most basic technique. Remember, real monsters don't stand still for you, so a hero also needs to have great reflexes and abilities to access a battlefield."

Everything he told me had proven to be true in my demigod life. In the real world, monsters were merciless and with only one thing in mind: kill or get killed. Simple exercises like the ones he had demonstrated were often time the fundamental for more advanced techniques in which everything pretty much built on top of each other. However, what made a foe formidable wasn't their skills with a weapon, but the ability to take full advantage of their surroundings. In other words, it was just as Annabeth once said, "Sometimes strength has to bow in front of wisdom." It wasn't a coincidence that I defeated Ares the first time. Sure, I got lucky that the God of War got too cocky, thinking that a puny little demigod was no match for a divinity, but other than that, I outsmarted him by utilizing the resources that were given to me well. By purposely leading him into the sea, I was able to use my father's nature as a tool to surprise Ares and followed by striking the god in the heel.

"Alright," I told him and picked up the sword, readying myself by taking a deep breath. Even though the blade felt extremely awkward in my hand, it was still manageable when it came down to simple slashing and hacking. Effortlessly, I performed the same task that Luke did and unfortunately for the target dummy, it met the same fate as its predecessor.

"Good job," Luke congratulated me after I successfully beheaded the target. "Why don't you give it a few more tries."

I stepped back a bit to gather myself then lunged forward with the blade at my side. Though my speed wasn't as fast as that of Luke's in my current state, it was still pretty swift. Sure, I was in a weakened condition, but my years of training didn't all go to waste since the only lacking part was my muscle while the rest were in my head. I went through some of the simple techniques, and the more movements I made, the faster I would be able to familiarize my body again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luke regarding me amusingly, nonetheless, I didn't allow him to distract me from my practice. "Wow Percy," Luke finally spoke up with a smile. "You're a natural with a sword. I wasn't even this good when I first started."

"Thanks," I told him after I managed to give the dummy in front of me one last stab.

"Hey Luke," one of the camper called out. "Is it time to spar in pairs?"

At his question, Luke nodded and gathered everyone up. "Alright," he announced to the group. "Buddy up with someone, you know what to do. And Percy," he addressed me after sending the others away. "I'll be your partner since this is your first time."

Everything felt like a blur for the next few minutes. The entire time, Luke was barking out orders, instructing me on how to maneuver myself during offensive and defensive plays. Whenever he saw an opening, he would say something like, "Your sides are open," before lunging forward and punishing my mistake by smacking me with the flat of his blade. The whole time, I was on the defensive, fending off each strike that Luke delivered to me to the best of my ability, but every blow he dealt was met by a step backwards. Regardless of how I was able to tell when his attacks were coming and where they were aiming at, my body was too slow for me to react. At the same time, wielding an unbalanced blade didn't give me any advantage either. It didn't matter how many different techniques I used, Luke always seemed to find an opening and exploit it entirely, giving me more bruises while he was at it. By the time he called for a break, I was already panting hard, greatly exhausted from being smacked around by him. The problem wasn't my lack in experience and skill, but rather by the fact that I simply couldn't execute them properly.

"Nice Percy, you did very well back there," Luke complimented me while everyone swarmed to the cooler to grab a drink. Instead of grabbing a bottle of water to drink, he got some iced water and dumped it on his head. "You should try this too. It always makes me feel better."

As a son of Poseidon, water always did the trick when it came down to rejuvenating my body. Naturally, I followed Luke's lead and dumped some icy cold water onto my head, instantly restoring some of my lost strength.

"Alright guys," Luke gathered us after a short five minutes break. "I'm going to teach you guys a disarming technique. Now Percy," he looked at me cheerfully. "If you don't mind, may I borrow you for a second."

I stepped forward while Luke continued on his explanation. "Remember, this is a very advanced technique that could be used against anyone if done correctly. Of course, a skilled swordsman will never allow you to carry out such feat easily," he said seriously and turned his attention towards me, motioning me to pick up my sword. "I'll demonstrate this in slow motion, so watch carefully." We both held our swords in the standard stance, with the point tilted upwards towards the sky. I knew exactly what Luke was intending to do at the moment, so I let him. Luke approached rapidly, sliding his blade against mine briefly before swiftly striking the flat of his blade against mine and twisting his wrist so that my blade flew out of my grasp, flying towards the end of the marked sparring area.

"Now, in real battles, the enemy won't sit there and allow you to disarm them like this," Luke pointed out. "So Percy," once again addressing me after I retrieved my sword from the ground. "We will keep sparring until one of us loses their weapon."

I readied myself, placing the blade next to me and lowered my central gravity. Luke came after me like a blur, but I blocked his first strike and decided to push forward. The renewed energy that the water provided me from earlier gave me temporary stamina and speed boost, and I wasn't planning to let it go to waste.

It was my turn to be on the offensive. I slashed and hacked and unsurprisingly Luke parried all of them, but the carefree expression that he had was no longer there. Did he look surprised? Or was that anger? Angry that he was being forced back by someone who he thought was the first time wielding a sword. I began to press him with more force, at the same time looking for an opportunity to disarm him, but of course, Luke was making it as hard as possible. He, too, started to press back with more force, and unfortunately for me, due to the strength difference between the two of us at the moment, he quickly regained his footing, bringing the pace of the battle back to a neutral state. We went back and forth like this for a couple of seconds, and finally, I saw my chance and seized it immediately. The moment our blades locked, I dragged my sword down towards his hilt and twisted his blade in one fluid motion, sending his sword flying out of his hand.

Everyone watched us in silence with some gawking at the result of the spar. To them, it was unfathomable that a beginner had successfully disarmed what could possibly be the best swordsman in the century. Luke looked extremely shocked and was staring at me with confusion. Thankfully, he managed to recover, saving me from this embarrassing moment.

"Wow Percy," he exclaimed excitingly, flashing me an approving smile. "That was awesome!" At that, the campers boomed into cheers, making my face turn really red.

"Uh thanks," I managed to get out weakly. The surge of adrenaline from the battle along with the boost from the water had died down, causing me to feel a bit lightheaded.

"Well," Luke began, turning to address the others. "Now you know the basics. Everyone, except for Percy, go practice with your partner, and then we will call it a day."

After realizing that my current endurance was still far away from my peak, I fought down the urge to flop down right on the spot and spoke up in disagreement. "No, I think I would like to train as well." I wasn't going to allow this opportunity to slip past me. The frustration of feeling weak only served as motivation for me to quickly improve from my current condition. Getting up and grabbing ahold of the imbalanced blade, I headed back towards the training grounds. No doubt, my muscles would be complaining tomorrow.

*Scene Break

"Campers," Chiron bellowed, silencing the excited crowd after we had finished dinner. Next to him was Dionysus, who looked extremely bored and seemed as if he couldn't wait to go back to the Big House and drown himself in diet coke and wine magazines. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. Remember, no killing or maiming is allowed. Have fun!"

Right after the sword lessons with Luke, the entire Hermes cabin looked quite beaten up. Nonetheless, after realizing that capture the flag was taking place after dinner, all their previous fatigue and lethargy were instantly replaced by motivation and thrill. Dinner went by extremely fast as everyone scarfed down their food, anxious for the upcoming main event of the night.

"Blue team follow me," Annabeth yelled out and everyone with a blue feather on their helmets all trailed behind the Athena's cabin. Luke had told me that the Hermes' cabin had made an alliance with the Athena cabin, who also happened to ally themselves with the Apollo cabin. On the flip side, the Ares cabin had the other cabins such as Aphrodite and Demeter, as allies, but all of the skilled fighters on that side were only the children of Ares and Hephaestus.

After putting on the helmet that Luke handed me and grabbing the same sword I had been using for the entire afternoon, I met up with the rest of the team. Though not my ideal choice, this sword would have to do. Annabeth was assigning each of us a role, grouping us into offense, defense, and flankers. When it was my turn, she eyed me carefully, but before she could even speak up, I interrupted her.

"I would like to take border patrol," I told her flatly. "By diverging Clarisse's attention towards me, you will have one less group to worry about." I had felt betrayed in the past when Annabeth explained her reason to use me as a bait after the first capture the flag. Sure, we won because Clarisse and her goons tunnel visioned on me, hoping for some sweet revenge, but in the end, all they got was defeat and some ass kicking. "Also, watch out for any traps from the Hephaestus cabin. If I were with them, I would place the traps near the boundary line and especially around the flag."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and looked at me with amusement. "Impressive," she nodded her head. "That's what I'm planning to do. I'm glad we're on the same wavelength." After shamelessly admitting that she was going to use me as a bait, she continued on, "Don't worry, we will come to your aid as soon as possible."

"Uh," next to her, Annabeth's brother, Malcolm spoke up in wonder. "You may actually be a son of Athena with your brain."

"Perhaps," I responded, trying to suppress a smirk. "I just thought about how they might behave and try to use that to our advantages. Ya know, thinking in their shoes." I was not much of a strategist, so if they asked me to devise battle plans or analyze anything that was Athena-level-worthy, they would quickly find that my brain was actually filled with kelp. The only reason why I seemed to be able to understand all the plannings that Annabeth made was only because of the fact that I was reliving this event. However, after years of hanging out with Annabeth, some of her cleverness also rubbed off onto me, so at the same time, I wasn't as dense as I used to be.

"Since everyone knows what they're doing," Annabeth concluded. "Let's go kick some ass." All of us gave out a loud cheer and jogged to their designated post. Since Luke was the most skilled fighter on our side, he would be leading most of his siblings in the frontal assault, while Annabeth and Malcolm would each take half of their cabin mates, using the distractions that Luke would create to flank from both sides. Apollo campers were divided into two groups, where half of them would guard the flags with the rest of the Hermes' cabin, and the other half would provide backline supports for the assault team by raining down arrows.

Then there was me, the border patrol, or the bait to be exact. Instead of feeling left out from all the actions, this time around, I understood my job on the team and was willing to complete my duty if that meant victory to our side. Throughout the quest to Rome, I learned an important lesson: we don't have to be the hero all the time. A good leader wouldn't hog all the spotlights to themselves, rather, they would focus more on the group and would step back to act as a more supportive role if the situation deemed necessary.

Finding a comfortable rock by the bank of the creek, I sat down contently, waiting for Clarisse and her siblings to arrive. The first blood of the battle was drawn when a thundering explosion went off right as I settled down. I gave out a sigh, wondering who accidentally set off a chain of Greek fire after I had warned them to be extra cautious. The Hephaestus cabin's trapping skills were not something to be taken lightly, especially Bekendorf's. If he was still alive when Kronos and his army were invading Manhattan, his exceptional proficiency and knowledge on said subject would make the defense much easier.

As time went on, the clashing of weapons along with the occasional defiant roar from injured campers began to shift further away from me, and soon the woods around me became silent. I wasn't really surprised by the fact that Luke and his team was able to push up effortlessly. From the start he was a remarkable swordsman, causing opposing campers to flee or surrender whenever he appeared in front of them. The other reason was due to the fact that the Ares cabin weren't trying to stop his advance. Exactly like how it happened last time, they finally showed up.

A tingling feeling went down my spine and small, but noticeable, rustling sounds, only to be amplified by the calmness of the surroundings, appeared in four different directions.

"Clarisse," I spoke up, still sitting at my comfortable rock. "There's no need to hide. Just come out already." My words definitely startled them, no doubt thinking that they were well hidden behind the bushes and trees.

"Well, punk," Clarisse and her siblings came out from hidings and jumped down, surrounding me in the process. "I'm going to make you pay for humiliating me and hurting my pride."

Remaining seated, I looked up innocently and asked, "Huh? What did I do?"

"Don't feign ignorance here," Clarisse spatted, looking at me venomously while gripping onto her electric spear tightly. "I don't know how, but I know you're the one who caused the toilet to explode."

"Ah, I see. You're right, I was the one who did it," I admitted shamelessly, which only made them closed in on me, all glaring at me. One of them began to crack his knuckles, and two of them drew their weapon, ready to put me in all kinds of hurt once Clarisse gave the signal. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"That's what you're about to find out," she said through gritted teeth, and finally got up to my feet. My laid back attitude was only fueling their anger and bitterness at this point, and I was trying hard to suppress a grin. I had nothing against Clarisse, obviously, but a chance to tease an old friend and was something that I could never let slip by. Go ahead, call me a bad friend.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I gave her a warning. "Unless, of course, you want to humiliate yourself again."

"Oh," Clarisse responded in a challenging voice. "You really think you can take on all five of us at once? There's no toilets to help you this time, _Prissy_." I shrugged and stretched lazily before I taunted them to charge me. All five of them lunged at once at Clarisse's wave of hand, and that was when they made their mistakes.

The battle lasted less than ten seconds. Controlling the water in the creek, I willed it into a giant fist, crushing the Ares' children, before summoning a geyser underneath each of their feet, sending them flying in different directions. To ensure that they didn't get any spinal injuries, I made sure to cushion their fall with a thin layer of water just before they impacted the ground. Once they made contact to with the ground, the sheet of water that acted as a buffer shape shifted into cuffs, binding their limbs and mouths. At the same time, the conch horn went off, signaling the end of the event when Luke successfully retrieved the red flag with Travis and Connor trailing right behind him. A roar of cheers and applause thundered through the entire forest when Chiron announced that the Hermes, Athena, and Apollo cabins now have priorities when it came to shower times and activities for the next month.

Before I even got the chance to taunt the daughter of war god, a voice spoke up behind me.

"W-What was that, Percy," a voice that I recognized as Annabeth stuttered out. Still invisible, she continued on with a trembling voice, "Oh gods. Oh no. You're a son of Poseidon. This is not good. I have to tell Chiron about this." I wasn't going to hide my godly parentage any longer. Sooner or later, they would realize, which would force Poseidon to claim me, allowing me to go on the quest.

"Tell me what," Chiron cantered next to us. Everyone had gathered around us and was looking at Clarisse and her siblings in wonder, unsure how they ended up in water-cuffs.

Shimmering into existence once she took off her Yankee baseball cap, the daughter of Athena spoke up.

"Chiron, you have to -"

Whatever she was going to say was cut off by a deep growling sound. All the chattering from earlier disappeared when Chiron drew his bow, aiming at the creature that came from the underworld. Locking its eyes with me, the hellhound's growling increased, and I narrowed my eyes at it, preparing to strike it down once it pounced.

"Get back Percy," Annabeth yelled, but I stood completely still, ignoring her words. If this monster wanted me, then he could try. For the next minute, the air was as tense as a fully drawn bowstring in which no one made a move. Using this brief moment, I discreetly scanned my surroundings, but unsurprisingly failed to locate the son of Hermes.

After he had summon the beast from the Fields of Punishments into the camp, he had fled the scene, using this as the perfect distraction. The moment I returned my full attention back on the hellhound, it howled and surged forward. I remained still, waiting for the best moment to strike it down. I could not afford to side step its attack because that would only redirect its strike to the people behind me. I was determined to not letting anyone get injured. Besides, Chiron was ready as well, and even if I failed to defeat the monster in front of me and got wounded, I could always hop in the river to heal myself.

"What are you doing?" I screamed when I saw a familiar strand of blonde hair appeared in front of me. Since I wasn't moving, Annabeth assumed that I had been petrified, resulting in her reckless behavior of attempting to take the blow for me. Instinctively, I willed the water from the creek to engulf Annabeth, pushing her out of harm's way. What was this foolish girl thinking?

Pulling more water out from the creek, I shaped it into a spear and launched it forward towards the hellhound. Luckily, Chiron also fired an arrow and with both of our attacks pierced through the monster at the same time, it exploded into golden dust, returning back to where it came from.

Silence dawned upon all of us. Some of the campers were gaping at me while the others broke down into tears, terrified by the event that had unfolded seconds ago. Annabeth got back up and looked at me weirdly, but I could see the uncertainty and fear that lingered in her eyes.

Chiron regarded me with his ancient eyes, and finally, he decided to speak up. "Percy," he began nervously as his tail was swinging back and forth restlessly.

All of a sudden, everyone around me gasped in unison, and I knew what was happening. A green hologram of a trident appeared above my head, at last, Poseidon had decided to claim me, hoping that I would retrieve the lightning bolt to clear his name.

"It's determined," Chiron torn his attention away from me and announced loudly, covering up all the murmurings among the campers. "Hail Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God, Earthshaker, and Stormbringer."

*Scene Break

That night, I moved all my belongings into cabin three. Luke, who had gone missing during the entire incident, was now in front of me, asking me about my well being.

 _How ironic,_ I thought to myself. Because of this resentment towards the gods, he had placed Annabeth in danger, almost killing her in the process if not for Chiron and I. Sure, it was very stupid of her to protect me since I was capable of fending for myself, but I did appreciate her gesture. If I did get a chance later on, I would definitely scold her and ask her for the reason behind it.

"Thanks for taking care of me while I was there," I told Luke, who gave me a smile that looked somewhat forced.

"No problem, Percy," he said. "But don't forget to hang out with us in the future alright?"

"I won't," I reassured him and paused for a bit. "Um Luke," I continued. "May I speak to you for a moment. Preferably somewhere more, uh, private."

Luke looked at me questioningly, but decided to go along with it. "Alright," he finally said. "I got a place." I nodded and followed his lead back out into the woods. Most campers were back in their own cabinet, getting ready to sleep. The light of the Big House remained on, and I guessed that Chiron was discussing with Dionysus about another existence of a child from the Big Three. An oath was made after the second world war where Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades all swore on the Styx to not sire anymore demigod children. Of course, the former two never kept their vows. Seeing that the river nymph couldn't possibly punish immortals, the punishments were instead redirected to their children, cursing them with unfortunate fates.

Without any torches to light up the ways, the woods appeared to be spookier than usual. The sensation of the cool night breeze along with the cooing of the owls only intensified the spine - chilling feeling. Despite using only the dim moonlight that Artemis was providing, Luke was still able to have perfect bearings, navigating us through the darkness perfectly.

Abruptly, he came to a stop, and turned around to address me. "There should be no one around here. So what do you want to talk about?" he asked me in a calm voice.

I surveyed my surroundings, and after confirming what he said, I began, "You don't have to do this, Luke."

"Do what?" he looked at me with confusion and prompted me to continue. "What are you talking about?"

"Then let me be as blunt as possible," I offered. "I know you were the one who summoned the hellhound tonight."

"That's a very serious assumption you're making, Percy," Luke stated with a raised brow, but with my trained eyes, I was able to see a slight change in expression through the darkness. "You shouldn't say something like that unless you have a solid proof."

"Oh no, you're misunderstanding this," I said. "I'm not making an assumption. I'm leveling an accusation." I gave out a sigh and asked, "Then let me ask you, where were you when the hellhound appeared?"

"I was with the crowd," Luke stated as a matter of factly. "It was thanks to Chiron that Annabeth didn't get hurt."

"Then how come I didn't see you?" I asked and before he could answer, I pressed onwards. "You thought that the hellhound would cause enough commotion for you to slip away unnoticed. After that, you probably went on to report all this to _him_ while the spies you have in the camp informed you on what happened." The last part was a blind guess, but seeing that his eyes widened briefly, I knew I hit the spot. However, as brief as it was, Luke's expression returned back to normal.

"Who is this guy you're referring to?" he asked while trying to feign his ignorance. "Who is _him?"_

I shook my head and spoke up. "Names have powers, Luke. You know it too," I told him. "And I'm sure you know who I'm referring to."

"No I don't."

"Then let me give you some hints," I offered him. The darkness made it difficult for me to read his expressions, but I took his silence as a sign to move on. "Does the voice in the pit ring any bells?"

"And what is the voice in the pit you're referring to?" he asked again. This time, I could tell from his voice quivered a bit.

"If this is what you want, then I'll be as clear as possible," I sighed and decided to use my last resort. I didn't want to mention the stirring Titan Lord's name, especially at night when he was the strongest. "You're working for Kronos," I managed to get out. At the mention of Lord of the Titans, the temperature of the surroundings felt as if it had plummeted fifty degrees. The owls stopped their cooing, and the cold breeze that I felt earlier were now sending chills down my spine. On the other hand, Luke took a step back and let out a small gasp.

"Stop lying to me," I pleaded him. "I know your reasons behind it, but there are other ways to do it."

"How would you understand?" he scowled at me. Since it seemed like I knew everything, he stopped feigning ignorance, finally admitting his act of treason to the gods.

"I do understand, and I can tell you that right now that," I countered him. "You feel that the demigods were being mistreated by their godly parents. Unclaimed demigods were always shoved in the Hermes cabin without knowing when they will or if they will ever be claimed. Your resentment towards the Olympians all stemmed from the neglected feelings that you felt. Not to mention, Thalia..."

At the mention of the daugher of the Zeus, Luke tensed and yelled, "Don't even mention her. You know nothing about her!" Waves of anger rolled off from him and to release all his pent up frustration, he slammed his fist into the tree next to him, startling the wood nymphs that resided in it. "The gods let her die! If not-"

I shook my head in disappointment. "Either way," I interrupted him. "You started dreaming about Kronos, and allowed him to manipulate you, making you to steal the lightning bolt. You are the lightning thief, Luke."

Once again, he stared at me in shock then narrowed his eyes. "You know too much, Percy," he said in a dangerous tone. "I should dispose of you right here, so no one will know about this." In response, I merely shrugged at his empty threat. Without a weapon, there was no way he could take me down in a fight.

"Maybe you should," I told him honestly. After uncovering his plans, it was only logical that he would want to kill me to tie up loose ends. Luke wasn't a novice, and he would do anything to make sure that nothing stands between his ultimate goal of tearing Olympus down. Leaving me alive meant that there would always be a possibility for me to rat him out or hinder his plans. "But I'm here to tell you that there is another way to achieve what you want." I did not want to see him walk down the same path again, a path that only lead to darkness and destruction.

"No there isn't," Luke spat, his eyes were bloodshot.

I shook my head at that. "I know a way, but you will have to trust me," I told him sincerely. "You're being used as a stepping stone for Kronos. Do you really think Kronos will keep his promise?"

"How would you know?" he retorted defensively. "You're just a twelve year old who knew nothing better. You've never seen and experience the real world yourself." Unfortunately, I had nothing to say against that. Why would he trust me? In fact, if he actually took the words of a twelve years old seriously, I would actually feel surprised. I understood where he was coming from and the reason behind his cynical thoughts. He wanted to be recognized and approved of, instead of being used as a pawn by the Olympians, feeling abandoned at the same time. "And the Titan Lord had promised me change and that I would be honored for centuries." I suppressed a wince at how gullible he sounded. If he knew what awaited him, then he wouldn't be acting so confident. I was determined to save Luke. Towards the end, he knew he made the wrong choice and realized that Kronos would never deliver what he promised and only desired annihilation.

"I understand that there's no reason for you to trust my words," I stated calmly. "How about I'll show you progress. I also think that demigods deserve better, but I'm going to do it my way."

"Good luck at that," he snickered at my plan. "Remember to tell me how you fail miserably." Knowing that changing his mind was impossible, I gave out an exasperated sigh.

"Well," I concluded. "I know I can't stop you, but before we call it a night, let's keep all this off the record."

"What makes you think I can trust you," Luke narrowed his eyes and questioned me. "You think I'm as naive as you? The moment we leave this place, you're just going to tell Chiron and Mr. D, then the Olympians would be hunting me."

I shook my head at that. "Then we will both swear on the River Styx." He looked at me strangely, wondering how I knew about the most sacred way to seal an oath. I ignored him and took the initiative. "I swear on the Styx that I will not let anyone know what we talked about tonight." A large boom thundered across the peaceful night sky, sealing the oath.

I looked at him expectantly, in response, he did the same. "I swear on your terms." Another large boom went off and the harmony of the cool summer night was restored.

The next morning, there was an emergency council meeting, requesting the head counselors for each cabin to be present. Since I was the only one resided in the Poseidon cabin, naturally, my presence was mandatory. When I walked in the room, all seats were filled except for the one for Poseidon. I glanced around and realized that the Hermes' cabin had Travis and Connor Stoll as representatives. Where was Luke? Shouldn't he be the one here? Apparently, the others also echoed my thoughts since we all shared a puzzling look. To my surprise, Dionysus was present, sitting next to Chiron, looking extremely irritated.

"There you are Percy," Chiron greeted and gestured me to take a seat. "Since everyone is here, we will began the meeting." Everyone sat up straight and focused intently on the camp director. "We are here to discuss the missing son of Hermes, Luke Castellan."


	4. The Third Night

_**Author's Notes:**_

 _First of all, thanks for the follows, favorites, and reviews! Sorry to disappoint but I'll be updating slower since school has started for me. Good news is that besides reading some light novels and playing video games (I'm really enjoying Xcom 2), I'll be writing. I have great plans for this story and assuming that I don't abandon it like I did with my previous fics, this will go all the way up to the defeat of Gaia. Not much to say about this chapter since I'm still setting up for future events though actions will be coming starting from next chapters. This chapter is really building some fundamental relationships with the campers including Annabeth and Clarisse. Not gonna lie, I actually like Clarisse, so for those who's wondering if Percy and Clarisse will keep going at it, my short answer will be a no, so rest assure. The other thing I briefly went over is Percy's power and I'm referring to Chronos here. I'll go more in depth as the story progresses, meaning I will be supplying more information on the power I touched upon in this chapter along with additional powers that he will be discovering. Lastly, I hope you enjoy the little twist in the end :) Alright, thank you for reading. Let me know how you think by dropping down a review!_

*Story Starts*

After Chiron's announcement regarding to the son of Hermes, there were mixed reactions from the head counselors of each cabin. Out of everyone present, it was Annabeth's expressions which exhibited the most change: ranging from disbelief to distraught until it finally settled on some sort of stoic calm. Her narrowed eyes and furrowed brows with a hand right under her chin indicated that she was trying hard to reason and analyze the situation on hand. Travis and Connor Stoll looked extremely shocked by the news and were gaping at Chiron with their mouths hanging loose. Luke was their older brother, who had always looked after them since their arrival at the camp, thus, the very thought of him leaving was unexpected. The rest also had stupefied looks on their faces. Even if they were never as close to him as Annabeth and the Hermes' cabin, Luke was one of the veteran campers who had been around since the very beginning and was rather admired by many.

Clarisse looked a bit sad at the thought of losing a marvelous sparring partner. After Luke, the daughter of Ares was probably the second best fighter in the camp, and I would definitely volunteer if she ever looked for a replacement. Judging from the grudge she has against me right now, the chance of becoming her new sparring partner was very likely as this would provide her an excuse to beat me up. Or at least try to.

However, that was not my main focus. Making sure that no one noticed me, I eyed the head counselor of Aphrodite cabin that was sitting across me carefully. During the last Titan war, Silena Beauregard served as a spy for Luke, leaking lots of our classified information to the Titan army, which ultimately resulted in her boyfriend's death during a secret mission to blow up _Princess Andromeda_. Eventually overwhelmed by guilt, she tried to make amends by convincing Clarisse to join the battle, who refused to do so since her pride was wounded by the Apollo cabin. Like how Patroclus lead the army into the battle since Achilles refused to fight, Silena lead the Ares cabin in Clarisse's armor and fought against the Lydian Drakon that was destined to only be killed by a child of Ares. By sacrificing herself and finally making Clarisse to participate in the future fights due to grief, Silena was regarded as a hero afterwards and went straight to Elysium after dying to the Drakon poison. However, no matter what the future Selena would eventually d to redeem herself, the current her was still undeniably a spy and as much, it would be wise to remain cautious.

Silena had her head low, looking down at her lap, making it difficult for me to read her expression. Occasionally, she would lift her arm up to wipe away some tears, but her posture still remained the same. For now, I would take her actions as a sign of confliction and that Luke had already confronted her before fleeing from the camp. Nonetheless, this was only my assumption, though the experiences that I had accumulated taught me that being extra careful was never a bad thing, especially when my actions could potentially affect the outcomes of everyone present in this room.

"So do any of you have any ideas?" Chiron asked with a saddened face. "Like who was the last person that he talked to?"

At this question, the brothers from Hermes cabin turned and looked at me before responding to Chiron. "Well," Travis began. "The last time I saw him, he was helping Percy -," at the mention of my name, he glanced at me once again and continued. "Moving his stuff to cabin three." Now, every pair of eyes were focused on me, even Dionysus was interested enough to put his magazine down, and I had to admit, being in the spotlight only made me feel anxious.

"So Percy," Chiron looked at me and prompted. "Is there anything you can tell us?" I paused a bit, trying to figure out the best way to answer his question. Everyone looked at me with anticipation, hoping for some good news or at least some useful clues to explain the motives behind his actions. Honestly, I didn't expect Luke to leave the camp. Maybe it was also naive of me to actually believe that he would trust me after I swore to never reveal his true identity. Now that I think about it, if I were in his shoes, I would have done the same, plus, it would be tough to act normally around someone who seemed to know every little detail of your plans.

"Well," I began slowly, looking at everyone carefully. "After saying goodbye to me, I thought he returned back to his own cabin." I decided to feign ignorance and come up with a believable lie, thereby shifting all the attention off of me. At my response, everyone looked at me with disappointment. "However," I spoke up again, this time looking at the wine god. "Mr. D, if a demigod were to leave the camp, wouldn't you be able to sense it?"

Looking irritated, he responded. "Yes Peter Johnson," Dionysus said as a matter of fact. "Of course I sensed him leaving the camp border, but when I tried to reach him, his presence just disappeared." All the other campers looked confused, and I had my brows furrowed in deep thinking, while a centaur regarded me with great interest.

"So you're saying he just disappeared?" I asked again for confirmation.

"Yes," Dionysus responded with annoyance. "Are you trying to challenge what I said, demigod? Are you trying to say that I'm wrong?" His eyes flared up with purple flame, startling everyone else in the room. Unimpressed, I stared directly back into his eyes, making him regard me with a new found interest. "It seems that our new recruit here isn't scared of death. Or are you so stupid to the point where you think I won't turn you into grape vines?"

"No, I wasn't trying to sound so disrespectful," I simply stated, which may have soothed the god's temper. "I was only curious as to how he managed to slip away like this." In reality, I was only confirming my suspicion. The only possible explanation for him to escape Dinosyus' grasp was Kronos, who no doubt aided him during his escape. I cursed at myself for acting so rashly by confronting him this early on. Now that he was gone, I was placed in a very disadvantageous spot without knowing if my actions had altered any of the downstream events. Even in my second life, Luke was still a wild card, full of uncertainty, but I knew he was the key to achieve my end goal.

Apparently satisfied by my answer and attitude, Dionysus grunted and signaled us to carry on. This time, it was Annabeth who spoke up, looking at me questioningly. "Are you sure he only said goodbye to you?" she asked accusingly. This entire time, she stayed silent but that didn't mean she wasn't absorbing any of the information that was thrown out there. "I don't think saying goodbye will lead to him disappearing. So, I'm going to ask you this," Annabeth snapped at me, balling her fists. "What did he _really_ tell you?"

"I thought I already said it, but I'll say it again," I began with a calm voice. I understood where her anger and frustration were coming from since she always had a soft spot for Luke. "He said goodbye to me, then we parted. Instead of accusing me, you should ask the Hermes cabin."

"And did he?" Annabeth asked, this time addressing the two new head counselors of cabin eleven.

"No, he didn't." They both shook their heads sadly at the question, making Annabeth to look at me again with a raised brow. Since I swore it on the Styx, I wasn't planning to break my oath and uncover the fact that Luke had been working for Kronos. Besides, even if I could somehow survive the punishment from Styx after I break my oath, the truth about Kronos raising from Tartarus again would only cause an uproar for everyone, thereby creating more unpredictabilities.

"So what do you have to say for yourself?" Annabeth snapped at me again, giving me a strong desire of gagging her, since the way she was analyzing things would only create more troubles for me and the future.

"I don't think it's logical for you to assume that I was the last person he saw," I countered her. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a certain daughter of Aphrodite shifted slightly at my words. I was almost certain that Luke had made contact with Silena before he fled, and her slight change of demeanor only reinforced my suspicion.

Looking at me with frustration and annoyance, Annabeth pointed her finger at me. "Jackson," she growled. "Don't give me that kind of response. I swear on the River Styx that if I ever -"

Whatever threat she was going to make was interrupted by Chiron, while the other demigods present were staring at us nervously. Dionysus, of course, had summoned a bowl of popcorn and watched the situation unfold with amusement.

"Annabeth, that's enough," Chiron chided the daughter of Athena. She looked as if she was going to protest, but a stern look from the centaur effectively quiet her down. "And Percy, I will believe your words. I trust that you were being honest when you said you had no idea where Luke went." I nodded appreciatively, at the same time, I felt guilty for betraying Chiron's trust. I mentally slapped my face, reminding myself that I was doing this for the greater good, so getting caught up in my own guilt because of dishonestly was something that I shouldn't do. "We'll discuss more about the missing son of Hermes next week," Chiron addressed all of us, and we all nodded in unison. "Mr.D will be reporting this to the Olympian council shortly. Alright, if there's nothing else, meeting adjourned. Go meet up with your cabin mates and carry on with your daily activities."

*Scene Break

"Hello?" I waved my hand, trying to get the spaced out daughter of Athena's attention. "Earth to Annabeth. You there?" At my sudden motion, she snapped out from her trance and looked at me with annoyance.

"What do you want?" Annabeth snapped at me. Geez, I wonder why Annabeth was so easily irritated this time around. Or has she always been like this? Either way, I definitely prefer when she was my girlfriend, at least she was a lot nicer and didn't growl at me every five minutes.

"Oh, you know," I began sarcastically. "Maybe you should focus more on what we're suppose to do instead of spacing out every minute." Since yesterday, Chiron had ask Annabeth to give me lessons on ancient Greek, who reluctantly accepted the job. However, once we began our first session, she quickly realized that I seemed to understand the language already and that there wasn't much for her to teach me. As a result, for the majority of the time, she would be muttering something about Luke and the summer solstice, which lead us to the conversation that we were having right now.

"Oh right, sorry," Annabeth apologized. "So what was I saying again?"

"You were muttering about some deadline and quests," I reminded her and she immediately pounded her left hand with a fist. Her grey eyes were once again making calculations, and I thought I saw multiple light bulbs lit up on top of her head. "Also, can I ask you a question?" She hummed and response so I took it as yes.

"Why does it seem like you hate me so much?" I asked and continued. "I mean in the beginning, it was my fault for teasing you. I never got the chance to apologize, so I'll do it right now. But is there something else between the two of us?"

"Not really," she said, but paused a bit. "I just think that you're hard to read and I don't like it."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"It feels like you have a lot of secrets," she stated and I cocked my head to the side.

"I do?" I asked again for confirmation.

"I mean how is it that you're so proficient at greek already?" she asked, but before I could even answer, she began listing every suspicious actions from me. "How are you able to control water so well when you didn't even know who your godly parent was? The way you shielded me from the hellhound showed that you're not a novice at these kind of stuff. And lastly," she took a deep breath after firing all those questions to me at once. "Why is it that Luke disappeared right after you showed up at the camp?"

I forgot how persistent Annabeth can be when it came down to knowledge. To any of Athena's children, knowledge was power, and Annabeth would do anything to dig up anything she didn't know. I gave out a defeated sigh and answered her questions.

"For your first question," I began while trying to come up with a vague but convincing answer to satisfy her. "During our first session, I remember that you told me our brain is hardwired to learn ancient greek, so I guess that's why it was intuitive for me."

"But not everyone can pick it up as fast as you did," she argued with me.

"You just said not everyone," I pointed out. "This means that there are still some exceptions, and I may be one of them."

She rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah right. If you're a son of Athena, then maybe I'll believe you."

"What are you trying to say," I responded with a challenging tone. "I believe you're generalizing this whole only Athena spawns can be smart. What about Odysseus? I don't recall him being a son of Athena yet he was incredibly bright, overcoming problems using his wisdom."

"Fine," she mumbled, couldn't come up with a better counter argument. "Then what about my other questions?"

"Well, I always knew I had some affinity with water," I admitted with a smirk, recalling back to the time when I pushed Nancy Bobofit, with water during a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. "Grover would tell you what happened to the bully from Yancy Academy. At first I didn't know what happened, but after blasting Clarisse with toilet water on accident, I had my doubts that I might be a son of Poseidon." At my explanation, she nodded and didn't question anything more, apparently satisfied this time, so I kept going. "And I think it was just a coincidence that Luke left right after I came. He's a nice person, why will I make him leave?"

She studied me for a bit and finally spoke up. "I'm sorry," she apologized and I was momentarily confused. "I was acting too rash during the meeting. If Chiron believes you, then I'll believe you. Just that …" she trailed off, looking at the horizon. The Demeter cabin wa planting new flowers with the help of satyrs, who would use their woodland magic to accelerate the growth. The smell of daisies and the laughters from the nymphs and dryads off in a distance hit me with a wave of nostalgia. It was just like this. Everything was peaceful and right until Kronos decided to destroy my home.

"Just that what?" I prompted her to go on after a brief pause.

"Nothing," she shook her head and said. "It's none of your business."

"Alright. Sorry that I asked," I shrugged, remembering that she used to say that before we became close. I guess it was her way of protecting herself from getting hurt, so I would have to be patient first and try to earn her trust. Annabeth was a useful ally and someone who I would want to watch my back. Additionally, my instinct told me that she would play an important role in the future, just like last time. "Anyway," I spoke up and asked, changing the topic. "Why were you mumbling about quests and deadlines?"

"Oh that," she said with a slightly embarrassing voice. "I have a habit of talking to myself. Forget about it." I nodded in understanding and the room fell back into silent. If she didn't want to talk about it, then there was no point in me trying to probe it out of her. My guess was that eventually she would give in since her thirst for knowledge would no doubt overcome her, and what she said next was all within my prediction.

"Wait," she suddenly spoke up, eyeing me with great interest all of a sudden. "You said you know something about the summer solstice."

Gazing back at her with a smirk, I confirmed her doubts with a hint of mockery in my tone. "I thought someone said 'forget about it'?"

"You know what, pretend I didn't ask," she grounded out with annoyance and crossed her arms indignantly.

"Alright, alright. I apologize for that. I was only joking." At my apology and attempt to defuse the situation, she merely glanced at me sideways, contemplating whether or not she should forgive me. Maybe it was because of the strong desire for information, she huffed again, but this time spoke in a calmer manner.

"I'll forgive you, if you tell me everything you know," she laid out her conditions, and I could only respond with a wry smile.

"Well," I began as she looked at me with anticipation. The previous annoyance shown in her stormy grey eyes were now replaced with fierce concentration. "Before I say anything, I want you to tell me what you know so far. That way, we can save some time by not having me repeat information that you already know." That was one of my reasons. By all means, I wasn't tricking her with I told her I would tell her everything I know, however, instead of laying out all the cards in front of her, I planned on leading her to the conclusion without revealing too much.

"The only thing I know is that something important seemed to be stolen and it has to be return before the summer solstice," Annabeth managed to get out while pulling on her hair in frustration. To any child of Athena, knowledge was essential, and the fact of not knowing would literally drive them into insanity. "Also, ever since last winter, the weather has been acting weird. It was as if -"

Before she could finish, I interrupted and finished the sentence for her. "The gods are agitated or angry perhaps." Instead of getting mad at me for cutting her off, she nodded in agreement and looked at me expectantly afterwards.

"What if I tell you that the stolen object is Zeus' master bolt?" I supplied for her and immediately astonishment was written all over her face. The look on her face was priceless, so I decided to drop another bombshell. "It was stolen last winter after the winter solstice meeting." I had carefully thought out my words beforehand. If I said the object was stolen after the field trip to Mt. Olympus, it would be too suspicious since she never mentioned such event. Even though I could always use Chiron as a shield, making excuses such as "he told me about it" if she were to question my source, I felt like it would not be convincing enough for her. After reasoning through all that, I opted to word things in the most ambiguous way to save myself some troubles. By stating that the bolt was stolen after the yearly winter meeting, there could be at least two meanings. The first one could be eliminated since she would never believe that a camper would have the guts to steal from a god. It was a reasonable thinking, so I didn't blame her for making this kind of assumption, especially since the second scenario may seemed a lot more compelling.

I could almost see her body directing all the glucose to her brain as she tried to solve the query that had been annoying her for the past weeks. After only few seconds of silence, she began slowly. "You can't possibly mean that _he_ stole it right?" Her answer was within my prediction, and I couldn't help but give her an approving smile. Despite the fact that she never clarified the pronoun in her sentence, I knew who she was referring to. To bystanders, she may be referring to a certain son of Hermes, since he was the only male camper on that trip, but the highly held respect and childish love that she had for Luke would never make her think that he would commit such thievery. As a result, she must be talking about Hades. Winter Solstice was the only time that the Lord of the Dead was welcomed onto Mt. Olympus.

Since the start, Hades had been labeled as an outcast. No one dared to mention it in front of the all mighty Lord of the Dead, but in reality, that was the consensus. For, all year long he would stay in the Underworld, overseeing his domain while his brothers would be in the mortal world, bathing in warm sunshine. The fact that the general population feared death didn't help out with his reputation either, as a result, horror and Hades often came hand in hand. This was only one of the many reasons that Hades held a grudge against the rest of his family members.

Then World War II broke out, which only served as a catalyst to further aggravate their already rocky relationship. Axis Powers and Allies were the two opposing sides written in all history textbooks, but what they failed to mention was that the former one consisted mostly of children of Hades while the latter had both children of Zeus and Poseidon. Due to ancient laws, gods were not suppose to mingle with mortal affairs, yet the stance of their children made it quite clear: We don't like you Hades, so we will unite and defeat you. Of course, the war ended in 1945 when Germany surrendered, but that wasn't the end. A pact was made among the Big Three when they realized that their children carried too much potential power that could bring upon major disruptions. Subsequently, they swore on the Styx to never sire anymore children, but in reality, they only did it because of Hades. In the face of two versus one, the children of Hades wielded potent powers to almost tip the entire war in their favor. If not for United State's intervention, history books might all be written in German today. In other words, the method Zeus came up with was by no means irrational, but the ulterior motive was to restrict Hades' power. As the defeated side, he could do nothing but accept their terms unconditionally.

"By _he_ , do you mean The Rich One?" Over the course of my life, I had come to a realization that names carried immense amount of power behind it.

"Yes," she confirmed and began muttering to herself again, "...Yes… That actually makes a lot of sense." I frowned a bit at her comment. I never pointed my fingers at Hades if I recalled correctly. All I did was stating the origin of the stolen object and the time it was stolen, which she probably suspected already. I was a bit taken aback by her ability to draw connections at such remarkable speed while at the same time baffled at how she managed to jump to the wrong conclusion. Tracing her logic carefully, it did make a lot of sense, but unseen factors could always sway logic away from actual truth. For now, I planned on letting her immerse in the thought of Hades as the villain. Inwardly, I couldn't help but let out a sarcastic chuckle, feeling somewhat sympathetic to the Lord of the Dead.

"So what are you planning now?" I asked, breaking her from the trance she was in. Clearly, this was a violation to our agreement, but in my defense, she was the one who jumped the gun and never asked for my confirmation, though I never really intended on bringing Kronos into this conversation. None of them were ready to hear the real truth, besides, we were suppose to head to the Underworld anyway, so I didn't see how this could pose as a problem.

"I think a quest will have to be issued at this point," Annabeth slowly spoke out her thought. "And you will be the one leading it."

"I think so too," I concurred with her assessment on this situation. The purpose was to return the missing Master bolt to appease Zeus' wrath, so what could be better than having a son of Poseidon do so? Not only would I prevent a catastrophic war from raising, but also clear my father's name.

Looking at me weirdly, Annabeth suddenly spoke up with a completely different attitude. "Is it ok if I ask you a favor?" she asked timidly, almost too quiet to hear.

"What is it?" I inquired her while slightly tilting my head to the side. I was rather perplexed by the sudden change in tone and mannerism, but it was pointless for me to make random guesses.

"If, by chance, Chiron granted you the quest, you will be asked to choose two other companions to go along with you," she continued to speak in an almost inaudible voice. "So if you don't mind, can you pick me?" For the last part, she rushed through it quickly with embarrassment. So that was her request. The first time, Annabeth volunteered for the spot, and later confessed to me that after all the trainings she had done since seven, she really wanted to venture out into the real world to test her strength. The camp was suppose to train demigods, provide them useful skills in order to survive from the monsters' malice, so what Annabeth really wanted was to simply validate if her hard work had paid off. Of course, her fatal flaw might lead her on this competitive way of thinking, in which she had no excuse to not be perfect, but it wouldn't be Annabeth if she wasn't like this.

I gave her an understanding look and respond to her, "I don't see a problem with that, but -" Here, I paused a bit to gather my thoughts whereas she patiently waited for me. "But in order for us to cooperate, I think we both need to change our attitude." I couldn't believe I was doing this again and had to restrain myself from sighing out loud. "I know I've been annoying you through little things, but is there something else that's bothering you? Specifically, something that triggers your hostility towards me?"

I could tell she was about to snap at me again and deny my speculation, but she seemed to remember what I said about cooperation and chose to gaze into the horizon. After a brief moment of silence, she gave me the same reason as last time. "It's mainly because you're a son of Poseidon, and my mother is Athena," she reasoned but still refused to look at me. "You know, it kind of makes us rivals. We should never get along." Even though this was the second time I heard this, I was still greatly baffled by the logic behind her antagonism.

"That is not true at all," I simply stated and she looked up with a confused expression. I ignored it and continued to explain. "I understand the rivalry between our parents, but their war is not necessary ours. We have our freedom as to who we choose to befriend. A pity grudge over millennia shouldn't influence your judgement. As a daughter of Athena, you know full well that your reason was flawed and irrational. Besides, Poseidon and Athena did in fact cooperate once when constructing the chariot." The rivalry emanated from the contest that was held by the first king of Athens, Cecrops, who was seeking for a patron deity for the city. Poseidon struck the ground and formed a salt water spring, likewise, Athena did the same and planted an olive branch, creating an olive tree. Unfortunately for the sea god, the water was too salinated for the population, whereas the wisdom goddess' gift symbolized peace and prosperity. We all knew what happened next, and the rest was history. However, the grudge he held against Cecrops didn't stop him from cooperating with Athena. Somewhere down the line, Athena fabricated the body of the chariot, and Poseidon created horses to make them move.

"You're right," she admitted after I pointed out her one dimensional way of thinking. This was quite ironic since most of the time, I would be the one to listen or admit any wrongdoings. It was in fact a strange and a sight to behold, but I wasn't going to take advantage of that. All I wanted was a compromise, like a cease fire agreement, and I had managed to convince her to do so, for now. I wasn't sure how much she actually agreed, in spite of that, I would also honor my end of the deal by stopping anymore snarky comments.

"Since we've reached a consensus, I'll let you know if something happens."

*Scene Break

Once Annabeth and I finished our little strategy session, I decided to train my endurance and techniques for the remaining of the day. Soon enough when Dionysus returned from the Olympian council meeting, a quest would be issued, so I had to make sure that I was close to my peak performance. Under my current condition, taking on Medusa would already be a difficult task, let alone facing Echidna and her fire breathing chihuahua. Annabeth and Grover were still too inexperienced with actual combats as of now, so I would also have to divert my attention in order to protect them from harm. Then there was Ares-the god who had turned and, at the same time, the first god I had defeated. In order to retrieve the Helm of Darkness along with the Master Bolt, an inevitable fight against the God of War will break out.

As I slashed through the straw-dummies, memories of Luke kept on flooding my mind, only making me tear apart the dummies with a newfound frustration. That the son of Hermes wanted revolution due to his resentment towards the Olympians, resulting in him to side with Kronos, who promised him a new golden age which was revealed to be a complete lie in the end. Well, it depends on the perspective. Using the resentment that had been building up since the death of Thalia, Kronos used that as an advantage and turned Luke into his pawn. Once he realized that Kronos cared nothing for the demigods and only wanted the complete destruction of the Age of Gods, he opted to sacrifice himself in order to protect his friends and also fulfill his promise with Annabeth. Due to the fact that Luke was blinded by his indignation, he failed to see the potential catastrophe of his actions.

Firstly, I would have to gain his trust. Someone as cunning and deceptive as Luke knew better than trust someone he just met, let alone a demigod who was trying to foil his plans, so to accomplish such feat, the only way was to make a drastic change in the Olympians' attitude, such as claiming their demigod children, clearing up the always crowded Hermes' cabin. Hopefully by proving my words through actions, Luke would finally understand that there was always an alternative way and not just revenge. But the question now was: How can I make the gods grant my wish.

In my previous life, the wish was only granted because I used my gift of godhood in exchange of equality and respect. This time around, I have nothing to convince the gods unless I somehow managed to earned the likings of more than half of the council at which point they would be able to proceed with any judgements using the majority. One thing I learned from experience was that gods were prideful entities, so I would have to think this through before getting blasted by Zeus' thunderbolt. Luckily, I still got some time to devise an Athena-worthy plan.

I tore away from my thoughts and concentrated back on my training. I continued to slash away wildly, and at the same time was thankful that the magic in the camp was able to replenish the straw-dummies by itself. Instead of focusing on my own technique, I decided to change things up this time around. After suffering a humiliating defeat against Chrysaor in the Mediterranean Sea, who disarmed me in a blink of an eye, I had learned an important lesson after pondering for days on the _Argo II_. The sheer speed and strength he possessed made me realize that techniques were nothing but a flourish way of wielding a sword. It may look impressive, but unless this was a circus show, brute force and speed would always come out on top. I knew abundant of techniques, acquired through hard work and experiences, but when facing Chrysaor, I wasn't able to display any of them. I couldn't tell the son of Medusa, "Wait a second, let me do this sword technique and stab you in the torso!" In a battle, whoever could control the pace of the fight would often end up being victorious, and the act of mercy would only result in harm for yourself and allies.

There was a reason that most demigods had trouble fighting against divine entities with the exception of Heracles, who was born with immense strength. Though pompous and prideful, it wasn't an overstatement that he was truly the most powerful demigod alive. The greatest hero alive? That was up for debate. Zoe would always be the hero that I admire the most in my lifetime. However, a person's characteristics and personalities had no correlation with their prowess during a fight. Heracles had no defining technique, heck, he seldomly used a weapon and relied only on his bare hands. Having said that, the proud son of Zeus compensated with incredible strength, brute forcing through any opponent he had faced, proving himself as a valuable asset for the gods in the first Giant war.

Another reason why I wanted to abandon my old style was because every technique had its own flaw, an opening for the opponent to exploit. Scratch that, all attacks consisted of their own weaknesses, however, it was the matter if the opposition could take advantage of it, and the best way to achieve this was to be faster, forcing the enemy on the defensive. Thus, there were only three things that I wanted to accomplish behind all my trainings: agility, strength, and endurance.

Faster. I had to be faster. The past few days, I had been torturing my muscles, ignoring all the protests and complaints they were throwing at me and continued on working my way back or even surpass my previous condition. After slashing at another straw - dummy, I paused at my tracks when I realized that another party had emerged into the arena.

"Clarisse," I sighed mentally when I noticed the daughter of Ares and her goons decided to show up. "What do you want?"

"Oh nothing," she shrugged nonchalantly and turned to address her siblings with an almost too innocent tone. "Since you seem to be so good with that sword, we're here for some advice." Instantly, all of them gave out a sickening grin, and I knew exactly what was coming next.

"If you want revenge, then come some other time," I told her flatly and turned my back towards them. "I don't have time for you right now." After dismissing them completely, I returned to my routine. Right before I could sever another dummy's head, the skin behind my back tingled, and instinctively I whirled around to block a strike that was aimed directly at my torso before leaping backwards to gain some distance in order to assess the situation on hand.

"Has no one told you to never show your back to your enemies, Jackson?" Unsurprisingly, the one who attacked me was Clarisse. She probably didn't mean to deliver a fatal blow, but if I had failed to react in time, who knew how long I would be incapacitated in the infirmary. The rest, however, remained still, watching the events unfold with great amusement.

I narrowed my eyes and regarded her with disapprovement. "Tsk, tsk," I shamed her while shaking my head. "Has your father ever told you that it's dishonor to attack from behind?"

"Oops," she shrugged at me. "I guess I forgot about that." Roars of laughter erupted among her siblings, but once Clarisse raised her hand, they immediately quieted down.

"So what is it that you want?" I asked, pointing the tip of the sword to the ground while leaning on it in a relaxed manner. "Perhaps you want me to whip your ass again?"

Through her gritted teeth, Clarisse said, "That was only a fluke. Don't get too cocky now, Jackson." I raised my eyebrows when she easily dismissed her past two defeats as a matter of unlucky. "I'm willing to bet that you will lose if we fight one on one without any trickeries," she declared proudly, puffing up her chest, and gave her spear an experimental swing.

"So you're saying that you lost because I somehow won through trickery?" I repeated back to her, just to make sure that I didn't miss anything.

"Yes," she crossed her arms indignantly. Behind, her siblings all nodded furiously, some also voiced out their agreements, saying things like, "Yeah, how can a scrawny boy like you defeat us?"

"Mm," I hummed at their words and shrugged. "Alright that's fine with me. I don't really care." It was pointless for me to argue with them as it would only cut into my valuable training session. That being said, after I dismissed them so easily for the second time, they were obviously not pleased at all.

"Jackson," Clarisse pointed at me and snarled. "You're a coward, you know. No wonder your dad didn't claim you right away." As immature as they were, another round of laughters went off at the toxic remark. Honestly, I could care less about what they think. End of the day, these kind of bickering would not stop Luke and Kronos from executing their plans.

"That's fine by me," I responded back with a calm voice. "As long as you stop bothering me."

"So you're just going to wound our pride and then run away like a coward when we confront you now?" she pushed forward and I frowned at her comment. Since when did I hurt their pride? They had always been the one trying to bully me from the get go, however, since I was able to overpower them every time, they were now claiming that their pride had been shattered by me. Seriously, what was up with demigods and their pride? Thalia and Jason both had the same problem when it came down to defending themselves even when they were clearly in the wrong. Not to mention, Clarisse withdrew from the battle of the Manhattan due to the Apollo cabin, leading to the fall of Silena, which could've been prevented if she wasn't so stubborn and was willing to temporarily set aside their disagreements. Annabeth also had similar problems, or else she would've avoid the Sirens when we were in the Sea of Monsters.

That being said, I also had ego issues, but to a lesser degree, which had been put in check ever since the journey to Greece to stop Gaia from raising. I thought that with Luke's death, I was now the best swordsman, able to slay anyone that came in my path. Victories against multiple entities such as Ares, Hyperion, Kronos, Polybotes, and many others may have slowly turn me into one of the men that Artemis despised: prideful and egotistical. It was until my journey into Tartarus and the duel against Chrysaor made me realize that I was nothing to begin with. The sheer malice that the Primordial God of the pit emitted scared me indefinitely, reminding me that all my accomplishment was only achieved through sheer luck and assistance from allies and that those were nothing to boast about. Chrysaor only reinforced that idea by disarming me in less than a second and that was when I understood that there would always be someone better than you out there. Pride and ego? That could only lead to overconfidence and get yourself killed on the battlefield. Luckily for me, I was able to recognize that problem and was glad that I never really needed to trade my life away for such an important lesson, well, almost did I guess.

Looking around briefly, more and more campers had gathered outside of the arena to spectate the ongoing commotion, and without any effort, I located Annabeth in the crowd, looking as if she was going to break down and panic. Our conversation earlier had settled most things down between the two of us and that we agreed to cooperate until the missing item was found and returned to Olympus. I was surprised that Chiron wasn't in the audience since he would act as the peacekeep most of the time. Dionysus was still on Olympus, but even if he was present, I doubt he would give a damn about some child of Ares trying to take revenge on a son of Poseidon. He would probably show up with a can of diet coke and say something along the lines of, "If you want to kill each other, do it quickly. Heck, how about you guys just start slaughtering each other so I won't have to stay here anymore!" before retiring back to the Big House to read some more wine magazines or play some card games.

"Alright," I began, turning to address the other party present in the arena. "We'll have a duel then." Some of the campers gave out an exciting cheer, while Annabeth remained looking concerned. "But I have two conditions," I continued on, ignoring the mirth that was rolling off from the onlookers. In all seriousness, I hated to fight for entertainment and this wasn't the first time it had happened to me. The first time, it was in the labyrinth where I was kidnapped by Luke and was forced to entertain Antaeus, ultimately killing the arena master by luring him off the ground. The other time was in the Colosseum where Nike forced Leo, Frank, Hazel, and I to battle to the death, which thanks to Hazel's control over mist, we managed to subdue the goddess without successfully dismantling each other.

Everyone looked at me expectantly, even Clarisse, who nodded me to go on. "First," I started listing out my terms. "After this, you leave me alone." I paused a bit to see her reaction and once I got an acknowledgement from her, I went on. "Two, the loser owes the winner an undeniable request."

"I disagree with your second condition," she crossed her arms and said. "What if it's something that's not honorable."

"Don't worry, I swear on the Styx that it will not be immoral and will not, in any way, hurt your pride or damage your reputation," I reassured her. "Meaning, I won't tell you and your siblings to commit any crime or do something that will humiliate you. But I may or may not ask you to be my servants until I choose to dismiss you," I added smugly in the end, earning myself a glare from her.

"You're speaking as if the result of the battle has been determined," she said in annoyance, pointing the tip of her electric spear at me.

"Let's find out then," I picked up my sword and gestured her to come forward. The sound of cheering only got louder from here, but I couldn't hear any of them. I was in a trance with my eyes closed, focus solely on my body and mind, mentally preparing myself what was to come. I wondered what people were thinking. Perhaps they were excited to see a son of Poseidon getting beat up? Or perhaps they were hoping that I could come out on top so that the bullies would finally taste defeat and realize that they had met their match. Either way, the important thing right now was to defeat Clarisse while those meaningless assumptions could wait until the match was over.

With a defiant roar, the daughter of Ares charged with her electric spear cracking dangerously with power, and I opened my eyes in response. Clarisse was a skilled fighter, but she wasn't fast enough, most importantly, the way she charged at me left her sides completely exposed to me. Maybe it was because of the experiences that I had accumulated throughout the years, maybe it was because I had been training my agility and speed, Clarisse's attack seemed to be quite lackluster to me. Bending my legs slightly to acquire the maximum amount of force, I as well, launched myself towards her, aiming to close the distance first. The advantage of a spear was its long range, but its supremacy in that aspect was also its shortcoming. As long as I get up close to her, victory was pretty much as good as mine since my choice of weapon was a lot more flexible than that of hers.

If I were intending to humiliate her, I would toy around by smacking her with the flat of my blade until I was satisfied and let her frustration overcome her then eventually deliver a final blow. Thankfully for her, I wasn't the type to play around when it came down to swordplay and would always hold certain respect for my opponents. No, I would rather defeat her or even annihilate her. There was no point in holding back and that was also what Clarisse wanted in the beginning: a straight up all out fight. The first time I caught her off guard by exploding the toilets. The second time I had used my own affinity with water to overpower her during the capture the flag. Admittedly, these were not the most glorifying fights in Clarisse's book, but one thing she had to learn was that the mean of achieving victory was insignificant and that result was the only thing that mattered. People classify certain methods as good and the others as evil, but in reality, there was no honor and nobility on a battlefield. Such delusional ideal was the causing factor that lead to the death of many young heroes all for the sake of reputation and pride.

After closing in the distance and got too close to her comfort, I aimed my sword at her wrist. Under normal circumstances, my next course of action would be severing my opponent's wrist, forcing them to drop their weapon, however, there was no need to do that right now. Though such merciful behavior contradicted my own ideal, my end goal was to recruit as much help as possible for the future, and literally disarming someone would only achieve the opposite effect. Instead, I twisted my sword and smacked her wrist with the flat of my blade, but to my surprise she held onto her weapon firmly though the feeling of pain was evidently showed with her clenched jaw.

Even though I fully expected her to drop her spear, I did give myself some alternative options. Another important lesson was to have back ups plans and always think steps ahead of your opponents, which also tied in with the idea of respecting your foes. No matter how confident you were, no matter how lucky you think you were, at some point in time, Murphy's Law was bound to happen, and interestingly enough, it always shows its ugly face at the most desperate time. Additionally, demigods were known to have extremely bad luck that anything that could go wrong, would go wrong, so to quote Annabeth, "You always need a backup plan for your backup plan and so on."

Upon realizing that my initial plan had failed, instead, I twisted my blade once again and made contact with the shaft of her spear. Didn't matter what element her spear has, as long as I refrain myself from touching the tip, it would cause no affect on me whatsoever. The purpose behind my attack was simple. By making contact with the shaft, I could slide my sword along and conveniently slice her digits off, achieving the same result of disarming her but through a more unpleasant way. Looking at me with widened eyes after realizing my intention, Clarisse tried to push forward with her spear, but once she realized that the close proximity between us was restricting her from launching a counter attack, she made the wise choice and dropped her spear while leaping backwards to gain some distance.

The fight wasn't over yet by all means, but the crowd was already going crazy. Loud whistling and cheers were going around. At this point, none of them cared who the victor was, all they wanted now was a satisfactory fight and they were enjoying it for sure. Though throughout all the chaotic commotions caused by the campers, Clarisse and I maintained our focus on each other. Wordlessly, she unsheathed a dagger from her thigh pocket and charged again.

Clarisse had exceeded my expectations in combat, and I was seriously considering to ask her to be my new spar partner. Her decisiveness in threat assessment was something that I admired greatly. The fact that she was able to react accordingly to my assault and made the right call for tactical retreat while at the same time remained composed afterwards was a valuable trait for a fighter. As disappointing as it was, my speed still faltered, not meeting my expectations.

The usage of dagger was completely different from wielding a spear in a sense that the former one relied on close quarter fights. Knowing Clarisse who favored her spear more than any other choice of weapon, I was a bit astound when she pulled out the two daggers, but through logical deduction, I was positive that she no longer possessed the same threat. Dagger and sword attacks were basically the same, with the exception that thrusting was allowed. Besides that, the most important aspect that a dagger wielder carried was speed, in which the goal was to get in and out as quickly as possible with techniques such as feiting and grappling involved. Without a doubt, Clarisse understood and could execute all these techniques required for close quarter brawls, but what she was lacking heavily was experience and speed. Annabeth was one of the only fighters that was able to wield a dagger with extreme precision and expertise. Without the speed to back her attacks, Clarisse's movements became extremely easy to anticipate. The awkwardness was evident based on the ways she maneuvered herself. She feinted a strike at my left shoulder, attempting to confuse me, but when I noticed that she was eyeing at my torso instead, I didn't even bother to parry and decided to launch the same attack by aiming at her torso.

That was where the inexperience came in. She had the foundation and understood the basics with daggers, but her expression betrayed her, allowing me to react preemptively. Even though daggers and swords had similar style when it came down to technique, the latter one had the advantage of being longer. In other words, despite the fact that Clarisse initiated her attack first, the extra thirty inches that I had guaranteed that I would poke a hole in her stomach before her. Nonetheless, dagger also had its own strength, so if the opponent was more a lot more experienced and skilled at executing, then it wouldn't be this easy.

After realizing her shortcoming and that my strike would land before hers, she swiftly changed her target and went for my thigh. In response, I mimicked her, forcing her to alter her aim once again. No matter how she approached me, no matter what she did, it the flow of the battle was now in my total control. Deciding to spare her from any humiliation, I stepped into her guard and twisted the flat of my blade against hers, performing the disarming technique that Luke had taught me. The whole arena was silence except for the sound of mental dropping on the ground. Clarisse looked at me with disbelief and the majority of the campers shared the same expression. I didn't blame them. To them, Clarisse was the strongest fighter after Luke, but somehow, me, a demigod that only came to the camp not too long ago, managed to defeat her in less than two minutes. After getting over the initial shock, few people from Hermes cabin rushed in and carried me on their shoulders while congratulating me. I gave out an involuntary yelp at their sudden gesture and also noticed that Annabeth no longer had the same worried expression on her face. I wondered what she was worried about. Was it because of my safety or was it because that I would not be able to go on a quest if I get punished by Dionysus. Either way, that wasn't important to me since those useless assumptions was not practical and had nothing to do with my end goal.

The victory was mine, but it was disappointing nonetheless. All the positive comments and compliments were pushed to the side as I was solely focusing on my own performance, contemplating at my own failures that lead to a dragged out fight that should've ended in less than thirty seconds. I wasn't fast enough, and the dismaying part was that I had underestimated Clarisse's ability to react in a fight. As a battle veteran, these kind of miscalculations and disrespectful attitude that I displayed was extremely concerning. Truly, it was a disaster on my end that I must avoid in the future.

Slowly, Clarisse picked up her dagger and made her way towards me. I tapped on Travis and Connor's shoulders, which they instantly got the message of putting me back down. The loud chattering was once again silenced where the crowd looked at the two of us with anticipation. The hostile aura that she previously displayed was nowhere to be sensed, but I was still in the dark as to what she was planning to do.

"So Jackson," she sheathed her dagger and began expectantly. "I admit that it was my lost, so I'll honor our deal." Another trait that I admired greatly about the daughter of war. She was a bully, but a bully with dignity and honor. I mean, it didn't change the fact that she enjoyed picking on the weaker ones, and luckily for me, I was able to fend for myself, but that immature act could always be fixed.

Giving her a small smile, I responded, "It was a good exercise and as for the deal…" Here I paused a bit to gather my thoughts. What could I possibly want Clarisse to do that wouldn't shatter her pride and reputation. "Hmm I can't think of one right now, but I'll tell you once I figure it out."

She gave me the most unexpected response by nodding her head before eyeing at something next to my feet quickly. Tracing her gaze, I realized that she was looking at her electric spear and I made an "Ah" sound and picked it up from the ground.

"Right," I said as I handed the weapon back to her. "I believe you're looking for this?"

"Yes, but not anymore," she confirmed my guess but decided to turn down my offering, which I gave her a questioning look. "You won the fight, so naturally this is your spoil of war." Ah, so that was her reason for giving up a gift from her dad.

"Take it," I insisted by shoving the weapon in her hand. "What am I going to do with it? It's not like I know how to wield it better than you." The last statement was not an exaggeration. Just like how Annabeth was a top notch dagger user, Clarisse was also in a league of her own when it came down to spear play. "Besides, what is your dad going to say when he realized that you gave away his gift to some sea spawn." Apparently, the thought of withstanding her father's wrath was enough to convince her, but the effect seemed to be a bit too much, seeing as how she immediately paled.

"R-Right," she managed to stammer out with sweat droplets forming on her forehead. "Alright, we will be leaving now then," she turned to address her siblings that accompanied her earlier. I watched as the small gang made their way out of the arena. When Clarisse was right at the edge, she spoke up, "You know Jackson, you're quite interesting."

*Scene Break

"Goodnight guys," Annabeth said before she parted.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow. Goodnight!" I waved as I entered cabin three. I was now more free than I had been in the Hermes cabin. I was neither compelled to sleep on the floor nor required to follow any sort of lights-out time. Today was quite eventful and productive judging on the fact that I had successfully built up necessary connections with the campers. Though Annabeth didn't seem to be entirely convinced, at the very least, we agreed to cooperate for the quest. I knew from experience that eventually Annabeth and I would gravitate towards each other and set aside our parents' rivalry. As for Clarisse, despite the fact that I defeated her in the public, my honorable display in the end had earned some of her respect. These two would definitely play a big role later on; Annabeth for the brains and Clarisse for the muscle.

Once I plopped down onto my bed, I noticed something strange glittering on my desk. Out of curiosity, I reached out my arm and got hold of an object what seemed to look like an old fashioned mechanical stopwatch. Different from the usual stopwatches I had seen, this one appeared to have three hands instead of two, and I could only guess that they were for hour, minute, and second. I frowned at the unusualness of the display, but failed to come up with an assuring reasoning behind. Maybe the older generations preferred to have the hand denoting each significant increment?

However, this wasn't the only strange thing that I found. Modern day stopwatches had their hour and minute hand overlapped at the zero mark until a button was pressed, which acted as the mediator to regulate stop and go. Like the norm, the stopwatch in hand also had all three arms pointed directly at the zero mark, but instead of having one button, there were three on the side.

Three buttons and three hands…

Deciding to put my hypothesis into test, I pressed on the first button. Nothing happened. Similar results were obtained for the other two, so I was now left in deep confusion.

"Alright then," I muttered to myself. "How are you supposed to work?" The thought of asking Annabeth or any of the Hephaestus kids for help did cross my mind, but it could be quite embarrassing on my end, seeing as how I failed to understand the mechanism behind a simple stopwatch. Plus, Annabeth would most definitely bombard me with questions afterwards, inquiring me about the origin of the item, which was a query that I won't be able to answer. As a result, the aspiration of not wanting to bring unnecessary troubles upon myself fueled into my stubbornness of wanting to figure out the puzzle on my own.

Hmm.. if I couldn't press it, what about twisting it? Pinching my fingers on the elongated button that should designate the minute hand, I twisted briefly to the right and weirdly, one of the hand moved to number five while the other two remained at the zero mark. Interesting… With my basic understanding, I thought stopwatch was meant to measure the time elapsed. The fact that I could move the hour, minute, and second hands around freely kind of defeated the purpose for measuring time.

Still, I knew from the beginning that this was not an ordinary gadget. So just what was the purpose of this unique mechanic and why was it on my desk? My ADHD mind allowed me to toy around with it for another few minutes, determined to figure out the truth, until someone interrupted me with a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I raised my voice and asked the mysterious figure outside.

"It's me," a familiar voice that could only belong to Annabeth responded. "I have something that I needed to talk about."

"Give me a second," I told her as I grabbed the stopwatch and shoved it into the drawer next to my table. Just what could the daughter of Athena want at this time of the night? Deciding that the best course of action was to hear her out instead of taking blind guesses, I hurried over to the door and greeted her.

"Hey, what can I do for you?" I asked. "It must be important for you to come all of a sudden."

"Oh, it's nothing really," she responded sheepishly while fidgeting her fingers. "It won't take much of your time. Sorry to bother you." I nodded and beckoned her to continue. "Well, it's something about the quest, and I felt like something didn't add up."

Whatever she said never registered in my brain. The moment she started explaining her concerns, I felt an abnormal amount of weight in my shorts. Alarmed, I immediately patted my left pocket and noticed that the stopwatch that I had stashed in my drawer not too long ago had magically relocated.

"What the..?" I was so astonished that I temporarily forgot that Annabeth was present until she snapped her fingers at me with annoyance.

"Hey, are you even listening?" she grounded out, but noticed that I was holding something in my hand. "What is that?"

Uh oh. She wasn't suppose to see that. I had no idea why the stopwatch teleported from the drawer, but that wasn't my biggest concern right now. Right now, my objective was to come up with a believable lie to cover up this unexpected incident. Plan A was to deny everything at all cost and feign ignorance.

"Hmm?" I hummed while placing both my hands behind myself. "What is what?"

"Don't play dumb," she accused. "I saw you were holding something in your hand. It was circular. I saw it!"

"Are you ok?" I asked her. "I think you're tired. You should return to your cabin."

"Not until you tell me what you're trying to hide," she demanded and advanced towards me. Clearly, plan A had failed miserably, so now onto plan B: run.

When she was only few inches away from me, I feigned to the right, off balancing her central gravity, and immediately shifted to the left. Using this elementary maneuver, I managed to get past the persistent daughter of Athena and went straight for the door. What she did next had exceeded my expectation.

The second I set foot on the pavement, I tripped and fell face first to the ground. I cursed myself for being so careless, but once I realized the reason behind my unbalance, I was so baffled that I didn't know if I should be laughing or crying. Apparently, Annabeth gathered all her strength and leaped forward, attempting to use her body as a cannon ball to stop my escape. Originally, she was probably aiming for my torso, but since my speed had surpassed her expectation, she fell short and got my legs instead. If she had aimed a bit further, we would both be tumbling out of the cabin door, creating an embarrassing scene.

"Let me go before someone sees us," sighing inwardly, I demanded her to release me.

"Not until you tell me what you are hiding," the stubborn daughter of Athena responded.

"How about no?"

"Then sorry!" With that being said, she tried to get ahold of my hand, attempting to pry it out from me. There were few close calls, since unfortunately for me, female body tend to mature faster than that of male's, granting her some unfair advantage by having a longer reach. Eventually, by sheer luck, she accomplished the mission by applying pressure on my abdomen with her knees and used both hands to ferret out the stopwatch in my hand.

"Ha, I got it," she smirked triumphantly at me but frowned once she realized the object in her hand. "It's only a stopwatch, why are you hiding it from me?"

Yeah, only a stopwatch…

I didn't dare to voice that out, but chose to remain silent. Ignoring the fact that I had no wish to answer her inquiry, she continued to scrutinize the object like any child of Athena would.

"Why are there three knobs on it?" she asked, equally perplexed by the uncanny feature that it possessed. "And why are there three needles? Oh and why is one of them pointing at five, while the others remained at zero?" The speed that she fired all those questions only served as an impetus for the now forming migraine. This was the scenario that I didn't want to happen, yet it was slowly unfolding in front of me. Before she allowed me to respond, she tried pressing the one the knobs and this was when all the bizarreness arose.

It was as if reality itself was being altered, the scenery before me began to warp, and for a moment, I thought I was imagining things. A wave of nausea washed over me, serving as a reminder that no, this was in fact real. Everything around me was moving in an untraceable speed, worsening the nauseous feeling that I already had, and then it suddenly came to a halt.

"What the heck was that?" I muttered to myself.

"What the heck is what?" A voice that belonged to Annabeth spoke up next to me, and I staggered backwards in surprise, only to find myself bumping into another individual.

"Woah Percy, careful there." This time, it was Travis who spoke up from behind. Seriously, just what was happening? Forcing myself to calm down, I swiftly analyzed my surroundings, and to my surprise, the scenery presented before me happened exactly twenty five minutes ago.

I was standing right outside of cabin three, surrounded with some of my friends. Next to me was Annabeth with the Stoll brothers trailing behind. In a distance, I saw Will Solace walking towards the Apollo cabin, flanked by Lee Fletcher and Michael Yew. All my friends looked at me with confusion, except for Annabeth, who felt offended upon hearing my remark.

"I was trying to be nice by saying goodnight," she voiced out her irritation. "So did you have to give out such a rude comment?" Even though the comment I made was for myself, the misunderstanding that arose was well expected due to the poor timing that it got out of my mouth. Explaining my behavior would be extremely difficult, since I couldn't fathom what happened either.

"Sorry," I apologized while attempting to gather my thoughts. "I just thought of something. I didn't mean to be rude." Annabeth's expression seemed to soften a bit, but I paid no additional attention since my mind was focusing on something else. I placed my hand into the left pocket and felt a circular object that could only be the stopwatch. Since taking it out right now would create unnecessary questions being asked, I quickly said my goodbyes and entered my cabin.

What I found strange was that the minute hand was stuck at five rather than returning back to the zero mark. When I tried twisting the minute knob, I could only rotate it in one direction, in other words, the number could only increase and not decrease. However, once it returned back to zero, I couldn't go any further, making it so that a range from five back to zero was set. Setting that aside for now, the phenomenon that occurred not too long ago, if I was not mistaken, seemed like time travel to me. The fact that past events were replayed and that I was able to experience it yet again was a clear-cut proof. If this was all true, then this meant that Annabeth should be here any second now.

As if right on cue, a knock sound was produced on the other side of the door. Immediately, I got up and opened the door and greeted Annabeth.

"Hey," I said. "You got something you want to talk about?"

"How did you know?" she asked as she made her way through the door.

"Can't think of any other reason for you to visit me," I supplied. Seemingly satisfied with my answer, she nodded and spoke up.

"There's something that I've been meaning to ask you," she looked at me skeptically. Like last time, I could feel that the stopwatch had returned back into my pocket, but I chose to ignore it, decided to hear her out. "How is it that you know the stolen item was Zeus' Master Bolt?"

"Simple," I told her and she raised her brows at my comment. "Because Chiron told me." While in this timeline, Chiron never mentioned the origin of the stolen item, he did in the past, so I wasn't lying when I claimed that my source was from our camp's activity director.

"I see," Annabeth nodded in comprehension. I knew it was a convincing answer since she would never question the wise centaur. "Thanks for letting me know."

"Is that all?" I asked for confirmation and she nodded back wordlessly. That ended our conversation, and thankfully this time around, we didn't have to tumble out of my door.

Upon her departure, I fished out the stopwatch and decided to do some experimenting. Twisting the knob that was for the minute hand, I advanced it forward by five ticks to the number six. If my hypothesis was correct, the moment I press the button, I would be sent back five minutes in time.

This time, the nauseous feeling that I previously felt wasn't so bad. The phenomenon of reality warping occurred again, and once everything settled down, a familiar knock was heard yet again, and I knew exactly who was on the other side.

*Scene Break

The return of Mr. D next day from Olympus signified that my presence in the Big House should be required very soon. Two major things were discussed during the council meeting. First, as usual, the king of gods began his usual rant, speculating and assuming that a certain sea god had stolen his symbol of power. And as usual, Poseidon never bothered to explain due to his pride being trampled on, which lead to the end of the discussion. Afterwards, Zeus directed his anger once again at Poseidon, accusing him of breaking his oath of not siring anymore children, which then somehow lead him to an illogical conclusion of me as an accomplice. Objectively speaking, this irrational thinking didn't stem out of nowhere. In the past, Poseidon, along with Hera and Athena devised a plan to overthrow the current king of gods. However the ploy was deemed unsuccessful when the ocean goddess, Thetis, called upon Briares to untie Zeus from the divine chains while the three were arguing who should be the new ruler. While the instigator of this planned treason was actually Hera, not Poseidon, a seed of doubt and was already firmly planted in Zeus' head ever since.

The betrayal of the queen of gods wasn't without a solid motivation. Initially, Zeus courted Hera, but after many unsuccessful attempted, he resolved to trickery by shapeshifting into cuckoo that Hera took pity in. Once the sympathetic goddess took in the bird, Zeus reformed back to his original form, took advantage of Hera's surprise and raped her. Due to shame, she was forced to marry Zeus, though ironic since as the Goddess of Marriage, their relationship was full of disagreements and turbulents.

My assumptions seemed to be correct as I saw Grover made his way towards me. The whole reason that Poseidon claimed me was out of desperation, hoping that I would be able to retrieve the stolen item. Now that I thought about it, this whole situation was quite laughable, I must say. The great sea god rather asked for a mere demigod for help rather than reason things out with Zeus. Normally, as the son, I should be feeling extremely proud for doing a favor for my immortal parent, however, this was a distinct act of using me as a pawn. This all boiled down to the idea of pride where the gods refused to back down from one another. Despite knowing all the selfishness behind Poseidon's choice, I would still carry out the quest only to get a step closer to my end goal.

"Hey Percy," Grover waved at me and called out once he realized that I noticed his presence. I paused at my track and waited for him to trot over. The expression on his face though looked normal, as his friend for years, I was able to see through the facade he was putting on. Perhaps Dionysus had given Grover one last chance, an ultimatum where if the quest members were to return in one piece and also the stolen object, then his job as a protect would be deem as successful in which he would be granted a searcher's license.

"Hey man, what's up?" Even though I knew the reason he came for me, I decided to feign my ignorance. In this case, asking him "what's up?" didn't seem to be the most optimal thing to say since underneath that masked face was definitely full of dread. Since he was putting in a lot of effort of concealing it, I chose not to point that out, besides, I wasn't too sure what would happen if I did. Grover had always been an emotional person who could rant and sob over trivial things. Despite that, as his best friend, I had always sat there and listened to him, but there was something more important as of now.

"Oh nothing too important, but Mr. D and Chiron wants to see you at the Big House," he told me, and I gave him a nod of understanding. Afterwards, both of us walked in complete silence with me anticipating how the conversation would go with Chiron and him fidgeting with his fingers, too anxious to speak.

"There's Peter Johnson, as late as ever," Mr. D said in a bored tone but was quickly changed to an excited one when addressing Chiron, who was sitting across the table on the porch of the Big House. "Ha! You lost this one Chiron!"

The centaur only smiled amusingly at the wine god's remark, but I was left in a confused state. I never recalled Mr. D arranged an appointment with me, so the phrase "as late as ever" didn't seem applicable in this situation. Though this momentarily befuddlement vanished as Chiron greeted me.

"Ah, there you are Percy. How are you doing?" he asked warmly before turning his gaze back to the wine god in front of him. "And unfortunately for you, I'm the winner here." Currently, the two of them were playing Texas hold'em where Dionysus had a four of a kind while Chiron had a royal flush. No wonder he sounded so confident in the beginning. The chance of getting four of a kind was rare enough and could only be beaten by a straight flush or royal flush, yet Chiron, with incredible luck and against all odds, managed to get the least likely hand to triumph over Mr. D. I shook my head slightly at that, wishing that I, too, also had such luck in life.

"How the - " was as far as Dionysus got before he slumped down in his chair miserably and grumbled something like "As the God of Games, I can't even beat a centaur who trains hero for a living" under his breath. To others, this comment may agitated them greatly, but Chiron only smiled pleasantly.

"Percy, come sit down with us," Chiron waved his hand at me. "You too, Grover." He added in the end and the two of us sat across from each other. Mr. D had recovered from his defeat and was now regarding me with interest.

"You know Chiron," he began while scratching his chin in contemplation. "I still say we should just kill him." I merely raised my eyebrows at his comment, not affected by his empty threat. The consequence of killing me would only anger Poseidon, and I was sure that Mr. D would not want one of the Big Three as an enemy for the rest of his immortal life. Besides, Chiron would definitely stop him from doing so, which he did.

"With all due respect my lord, I don't think that's a good idea," Chiron frowned and pointed out. "I don't think Lord Poseidon would be pleased."

"Fine," he gave out a sigh but the depressed looked didn't stay for long as he came up with another brilliant idea. "What if I turn him into a marine animal. That way he will be in his father's domain, and most importantly, he will be still be alive!" He then focus his attention on me, giving me a thoughtful look. After a few seconds, he clapped his hands and spoke up again. "I think he might make a good dolphin, what do you say Chiron?"

"Once again my lord, I don't think that's appropriate for our young hero here," Chiron dismissed Mr. D's proposal without giving in another thought.

"Agh." This time, Dionysus grunted in frustration and asked, "What are you going to do with him then?"

"I say we should talk to him first," Chiron looked at me briefly and continued. "Afterall, he does have a say in this."

After Dionysus finally decided not to perish me or turn me into some random sea creature, every pair of eyes were now glued onto me. A tingling feeling as if someone was watching us from the dark went down my spine, but I chose to disregard it and instead focus on the matter in hand.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked even though I knew what was to come.

"To begin, it's regarding to the stolen Master Bolt," Chiron stated seriously, and I urged him to go on by nodding my head. "As we discussed few days ago, Zeus demands Poseidon to return his bolt by summer solstice, which is only a week from now."

"Since the best peace offering is to have a son of Poseidon return the stolen object to the Lord of the Sky, you want me to take on a quest?" I supplied for him, earning myself few shocking looks. The fact that I unraveled the final objective for this conversation with one sentence gave out almost the same reaction as if Grover suddenly declared that he no longer wanted to chew on aluminium cans. Their reactions were well within my prediction. Dionysus perked up from his wine magazine looking at me with new found interest, Grover temporarily forgot about his anxiety and looked at me with disbelief, and Chiron gave me a surprised look for a second but said expression morphed into a approving smile.

"Hm," Mr. D began. "Even though I don't like demigods, this boy seems to be quite intelligent. Very well, I will not decompose you anymore."

"I thought we had mutual agreement on not to kill me," I spoke out dryly.

"Never mind, as rude as ever. You should be thanking me, Johnson," he chided me and shook his head in disappointment.

Chiron gave out a small cough and once again the conversation returned back on track. "Anyway," the old centaur started. "Yes Percy, that is the plan. So the question is will you take on the quest?"

Without any hint of hesitation, I replied back with confident. "Yes, I will gladly accept the quest." Despite my brave display, trepidation was clearly reflected from his ancient eyes. Chiron had been alive since the age of god with the duty of training new generations of heroes. Throughout the past millennia, famous heroes that he had instructed, such as Achilles, Ajax, and the original Perseus, had ascended into the realm of Hades, yet he still lived on. The pain and grief he had to deal with when forced to accept the truth that one of his students had fallen was unequivocally painful. Perhaps at one point he learned to deal with the grief. Perhaps at one point he began to feel numb. Nonetheless, this was his duty, given by Zeus himself, that he had to fulfill. In the end, people would only remember the legacy that the heroes themselves created, not the wise and caring mentor that shaped them into the legend that people adored. Somehow, I was able to understand a small fraction of his pain and hurt. I, too, was forced to watch my friends and allies die in front of me for my sake.

"It's not like he has any other choice," Dionysus supplied nonchalantly. "But judging from where he might end up, I might as well send him there right now." At this moment, a booming sound came from the sky and Dionysus rolled his eyes at that. "Yea, yea, yeah, whatever."

"In the past, there were at least three heroes that made out of the Underworld alive," I pointed out and once again, everyone present gaped at me.

"What the, are you an oracle or something?" Dionysus looked at me incredulously. At my comment, Grover let out a nervous bleep, but remained silent afterwards.

"What made you think that you'll be going there?" Chiron asked while remained calm, but his eyes were boring intensely into mine, attempting to decipher anything I said. With my trained eyes, I definitely saw some rippling in the air, but decided not to do anything just yet.

"Well, this is the only logical conclusion that I came up with," I answered his query and decided to elaborate more on my reasonings. "To begin, furies were sent after me, and they only listen to one entity, so that was the first giveaway. Objectively speaking, if a fight were to brew out between the Olympians, then our friend down there will be the major beneficiary." By using the term "friend down there", they probably assumed that I was referring to the Lord of the Dead, though, I was actually referring to Kronos. If a civil war were to break out between the gods, with Kronos slowly gaining power, he would be able to strike in the midst when all the gods were tired out. I could care less about the stolen object. My goal was to keep the casualties down by stopping or delaying Kronos as much as possible, so returning Zeus his symbol of power was merely a byproduct.

"That makes perfect sense," Chiron muttered to himself. "Your assumptions may be correct, but I'm not the one to tell. Go on ahead to consult the Oracle, only then we can get some concrete clues."

"Before that," I stated suddenly, earning myself some questioning looks. I didn't care how weird I would look if my suspicion was incorrect. "Annabeth, if you don't mind, do you want to give us your input on this matter?"

Grover perked up at the mention of the daughter of Athena, but to his dismay, he failed to locate the currently invisible blonde. Dionysus gave out a knowing smirk, no doubt detected the hidden eavesdropper with his godly power. Out of thin air, Annabeth materialized but failed to cover up her astonishment, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Sorry for not announcing my presence," Annabeth apologized immediately at Chiron and Mr. D, but they dismissed her easily.

"So what do you have anything you want to add, Annabeth?" Chiron prompted her.

"I also came to the same conclusion as Percy," she responded to Chiron while glancing at me for a moment. Truthfully, this was the same reasoning that I provided to her during our greek study session. Since I was already proficient at said subject and no longer required any of her teachings, a role swapped occurred where I became the one explaining. "However, I do agree with Chiron about consulting the Oracle." This time, she was addressing me and I gave her a knowing nod. It didn't matter that I knew all the events that would be unfolding, I still needed to follow the protocol of seeking the Oracle before I leave for any quest.

As a result, Chiron told me the whereabout of the Oracle, and I entered the Big House and made my way up to the top floor. I tugged on the cord in front of me gently and in response, a trap door opened up and out came a wooden ladder. The smell of dust and rotten wood wafted out from the small opening, and instinctively, I held my breathe as I ascended into the tiny room. A wave of deja vu washed over me when I reminisce the times I had been up here. This was the same scenery that greeted me on my very first quest, except this time, I was no longer naive, no longer clueless on what I was heading into.

It was as I remembered, plenty of miscellaneous things were stocked up here, though the best description would be that of orderly chaos. On one side, armors and weapons that had been used by former demigods of the camp were covered with cobwebs but stashed neatly together. The other side was filled with artifacts that had been collected on the past quests. Under what seemed to be a dragon claw, a noticeable small tag read, Claw of Ladon, retrieved by Luke Castellan. This was the last straw for Luke. The quest that Hermes gave him was exact same as that of Hercules: pick an apple from the Garden of Hesperides. The fact that it lacked originality angered Luke, and to make the matter worse, he received a scar under his eye that only served as a source of pity from the campers. With the dimmed light that was coming from the window, I was able to examine some other intriguing artifacts that were present. On the table to my right, there was a broken bow with a sticker reading, Belongs to Zoe Nightshade, lieutenant of the Hunter of Artemis. That certainly got my interest as I began to reminisce about the past. It was only on her last breath that she managed to befriend me and accept me. Her regrets of trusting Hercules and the bitterness of giving him Anaklusmos were finally resolved once he realized that everything had come to a full circle and that I was the one who was suppose to wield of her beloved sword. Shaking my head lightly, I chided myself for getting distracted by my memories. The matter of saving Zoe this time could be save for later, and I would do anything to make sure that happen, but for now, it wasn't the most practical thing to ponder over.

I turned my attention to the mummy that was sitting in the corner. Even now, the sight of the shriveled female body with glassy white slits as eyes still managed to send chills down my spine. No matter how many times I had looked at the Oracle of Delphi, the creepy aura that it gave out remained constant. I was so glad that Rachel eventually took this job away from the mummy in front of me. Even though they both sprout out green mist when giving out a prophecy, at the very least, Rachel was a living human being.

"Hey, so uh, I need a prophecy for my quest," I began awkwardly. Speaking to a mummy was never my strength.

For a second, nothing happened, and I thought I had done something wrong. That assumption was washed away when green mist began swirling around my feet. I embraced its power as the mist began to thicken to the point where I had to place my hands directly in front of my eyes in order for me to see them. Next thing I knew, a raspy but ancient voice spoke in my mind.

 _You will see all return._

 _You shall free those you yearn._

 _You shall face he who hath hidden,_

 _And you shall realize the forbidden._

Afterwards, the mist disappeared and the attic returned back to normal. The power previously emitted from the Oracle was nowhere to be found. My attendance was over, yet I was so stunned that I found myself frozen in place. This was not suppose to happen. This was not the same prophecy from last time. All the confidence I had earlier completely vanished, and the look on that mummy seemed to be that of mocking, as if saying, "Ha, surprise! You thought this was easy? Nope!" In the end, the preparations and the planning I had done may have been useless. Ever since my rebirth into this world, my actions had somehow altered the course of Fate and destiny itself. Prophecies weren't meant to be changed by a mere demigod's actions, unless this was what the Three Fates meant when they announced that they no longer held control over my destiny. Just what am I supposed to do now?


	5. The Fourth Night

_**Author's Notes:**_

 _After four months, I have updated! To begin, thank you all for reading this story! I was a bit surprised with the amount of followers and favorites I got from last chapter. It really did exceed my expectations. I apologize for my slow updates because I'm busy with my school work (also bc I've been playing Fire Emblem Warriors and Mario Odyssey OuO). When school is finally over, xenoblade came out sooooo... But I do type whenever I get some free time, so rest assure, this story is not abandoned! Though I have to say, this chapter took longer than I expected. Let's see, this chapter is the beginning of the quest, which will cover the encounter against Medusa, and Echidna. Even though the prophecy changed, some events will still unfold regardless, except with different endings and sequences since Percy will be reacting differently. I'm not entirely sure how long this arc will be, but I don't plan on dragging it out since I want to introduce some more legendary artifacts and also further develop some more relationships between Percy and his friends. Obviously, this chapter will be focusing on Percy, Annabeth, and Grover's relationship and also Percy's more mature and methodical ways of tackling any given situation. I'll try to upload the next chapter in a month or two. I already started typing. As always, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a review if you have any suggestions or questions. Enjoy!_

*Story Starts*

" _Hey wise girl," I began nervously, gulping down hard when I thought about what I was about to say._

 _Seeing right through my agitation, she dropped her pencil and gave me an assuring smile. "What is it, Seaweed Brain?" I felt a bit guilty for distracting her. At this point, I no longer bothered to inquire her about the things she were studying or working on. By all means, it wasn't due to apathy, rather it was because she would bombard me with information that only Athena herself would understand. Since I wasn't a masochist who enjoyed being tortured mentally, I opted to remain silent most of the time._

" _If you're not too busy, can we talk for a second?" I asked and she patted the bed softly, inviting me to sit down next to her. "So as you know, the final battle is tomorrow. I have a few things to say, ya know, just in case something happens…"_

" _Don't say that," Annabeth chided me, flashing me one of her evil looks. Throughout the years we've been together, she had developed some iconic facial expressions to counter my stupidity. Such as right now. The look she gave me was as if saying "If you don't stop being pessimistic then I'm going to slap you hard enough to make you regret it" with both of her brows furrowing and eyes twitching periodically. Of course, scary faces were not the only thing she excelled at. Sometimes, when we got into a small disagreement like me volunteering to take the watch duty for her at night, she would choose to counter with a pout, and I had to admit, it was really effective._

 _I gave out a sigh and apologized, "Sorry, I don't mean to make it sound depressing. I'm sure we will all make it out alive." At least, that was what I hoped. "But I still want to tell you some stuff, specifically, I have a request to make." Even though Annabeth and I knew each other for years and had been dating for quite sometime, respect was still held between the two of us. Basic mannerism shouldn't be neglected just because the two people grew comfortable around each other, and I would never make a decision without her input when the outcome could affect the both of us._

" _And that is?" Annabeth asked, feeling more tense as time went on. The way I beat around the bush only added unnecessary anxiety, but to be fair, I was extremely nervous myself. This burning sensation around my cheeks was like the first time I confessed my feelings for her. My throat was extremely dry, and my palm began to sweat. Seeing as how I was fidgeting my with fingers, Annabeth placed her hand gently on mine and gave me a reassuring smile. She knew me all too well. She knew how I was feeling and knew ways to give m_ e _reassurance._

 _With a hoarse voice, I finally managed to muster enough courage and spoke up. "If we do, erm, I mean when we do," I quickly changed my choice of words when she looked at me with a raised brow. "I was thinking…"_

" _Thinking about what?" Annabeth asked, staring deep into my eyes. Just like how she said she loved the color of my eyes, I could say the same back to her. Whenever we were sitting in silence, I would somehow find myself staring at her, drowning in her stormy grey eyes. Initially, she would flush and ask me to stop staring because it was making her feeling self conscious, but nowadays, she got used to it and would just smile and make a cute face back at me._

" _I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, you want to -"_

 _Before I could finish my sentence, the alarm on the Argo II went off, jolting both of us off the bed. With few heavy stomps that could only belong to Frank, the chubby Asian that I befriended during my time at Camp Jupiter banged on the door frantically, notifying us that the ship was under attack and that all demigods were required to be in the main hall as soon as possible._

 _I didn't know if I should feel annoyed or glad that another swarm of monster had interrupted me in mid sentence_. _It did relieve me from my anxiety, but I was unable to tell her my plan for the future, no, for our future. I wanted to propose to her and asked if she would be willing to stay together with me till the very end. I wanted to ask her if she would be willing to go to college at New Rome with me. I wanted to ask her if she would be willing to create more memories with me as we walk down this road called life together. Annabeth had told me that she wanted to become an architect someday because she wanted something permanent, something that was long lasting and would be able to withstand any hardship. While our relationship was nothing but full of hardships, mainly due to the duty of saving western civilization, I think we had been doing a fantastic job. By no means I was a perfect boyfriend, but so long she was willing to communicate and be patient with me, I would be able to give her what she desired. Either way, I told myself that I would tell her the next chance I get._

 _Little did I know that I had lost my only chance._

 _We were occupied until the next day, when the main event took place. The last battle ended as a lost and I was forced to witness Annabeth disappeared before my very eyes._

This was when I woke up, drenched heavily in my own sweat. I kept having nightmares about Annabeth, and at this point, I would rather dream about Kronos than be forced to relive those dreadful events. At least if I dreamed about Kronos, I would have the courage to stand up for myself. On the flip end, dreaming about Annabeth only gave me sorrow, regret, and bitterness. Sorrow because I couldn't protect her, regret because I wasn't able to tell her about my plan for our future, and bitterness because I was too weak. Seeing her in my dreams only reminded me that I had lost my wise girl forever. Even though I could still see Annabeth everyday in this second life of mine, something felt different from the get go. The Annabeth that I was dating seemed to be a lot more … mature, though it was understandable since the current Annabeth was only twelve years old compare to that of almost eighteen.

It was still fairly dark outside, 3:47 a.m. to be exact. Perhaps it was the power from Chronos, I was able to pinpoint the precise date and time at any given moment, similar to my ability of having perfect bearings in the sea. There was still some time left before dawn when the quest members would leave. Since falling back asleep was impossible at this point, I decided to go over the prophecy again.

It was pointless to do any further planning since I no longer had a hold of the future. That being said, it didn't mean I should give up completely and allow things to develop on its own. No. I refused to do that. I would need to be ready and be able to react to any surprises that would be thrown at us. As the most experienced person out of the three, despite what they may think, my job was to ensure their safety and accomplish the mission that was given. I couldn't completely rely on my stopwatch either since I was still relatively unfamiliar with the artifact. Were there limitations? Was there a limit to how often and how far that it could rewind time? What were the repercussions if there were any? With the lack of understanding on my end, I would only use the new found power if it seemed there was nothing left. I was certain that my time powers covered more than temporal rewind. Perhaps I could also freeze time like Kronos? An evil grin appeared on my lips when I thought about how stupefied the Titan Lord would look if I froze him in place. _Oh, the irony._ Sadly with the quest coming up, I could only wait until it was over to do further experimentations.

First line was quite self explanatory since _"You will see all return"_ could only have so many meanings. " _You shall free those you yearn"_ definitely referred to my mom here...but we can never be entirely sure. The first time, we were forced to leave her in the hands of Hades until the Helm of Darkness was returned. The prophecy suggested that Hades freed her, which could only mean one thing: somewhere along the line, I would be able to retrieve the helm. But this gave me another headache. Just how was I supposed to convince Ares to return it? As for the last two lines, there were so many interpretations. Perhaps the hidden one was referring to Kronos? Or was it Luke? And just what was the forbidden that I would realize? I grabbed my hair in frustration and smiled wryly when I realized where Annabeth's vexation of not knowing was coming from. As people often say, knowledge is power, and the current state I was in made me feel extremely helpless.

Well, I guess all I could do right now was to mentally and physically prepare myself, since blindly guessing wasn't going to accomplish anything. Afterall, it was a general knowledge that prophecies usually came with double meanings.

Getting out of my bed, I decided to use the remaining time to pack some essentials, and if there happened to be some extra time left, I planned on doing some jogging for the sake of my own stamina.

After rummaging through my belongings, it turned out that there wasn't much for me to pack, since all I really needed was the stopwatch and Riptide, which was currently held in Chiron's possession. As a result, my backpack was filled with chips and other snacks, courtesy to the Stoll brothers, who claimed that they bought it for me as moral support. I wasn't entirely sure if they actually bought it with their own money, seeing how they had mastered their father's skill of thievery, but I was somewhat touched by their thoughtfulness. 4:08. Since I still had almost an hour to kill, I elected to proceed on with my morning exercises.

*Scene Break

By the time it was five, I had finished my jog around the camp, took a warm shower, and showed up in at the top of the hill with my backpack. Unsurprisingly, Chiron and Argus were there waiting for us, though there was no sign of my two other companions. Upon my arrival, Chiron turned around and flashed me with a warm smile.

"Good Morning Percy," Chiron greeted me. Next to him, Argus nodded politely at me. "Beautiful day isn't it?" At his comment, I merely glanced up at the sky before he continued on. "Even on the quest day, you still kept up with your trainings. Impressive, indeed." Since my arrival at the camp few days ago, in order to compensate for my lack of endurance, I had set up some training routines, and morning jog was one of them. That being said, his casual remark of knowing my actions did catch me off guard, seeing as how I failed to detect his presence. I hid my disappointment and self - depreciating thoughts regarding the lack of awareness on my part by changing the subject.

"Yeah, extra training wouldn't hurt," I shrugged and gave him my reasoning. "Where is Annabeth and Grover?"

"Ah it seems that they are not as punctual as you," Chiron winked at me as he said before a voice not far away called out.

"Seaweed Brain here only beat us by couple of seconds," a feminine voice that resembled that of Annabeth said in a joking manner.

When I was about to give out a sarcastic retort of my own, another voice that could only belong to Grover spoke up, "Sorry, I was finding my aluminum cans and apples." The first time he told me his weird habit of chewing on aluminum cans when feeling nervous I had looked at him incredulously, but after witnessing the phenomenon and listening to his explanation such that aluminum cans contain essential minerals for satyrs, I had become a believer. As such, when Grover mentioned he was finding his travel necessities, I chuckled softly in response.

"Since we are all here, let's get going," Chiron began with a warm smile. Even so, unease was laced in his words and worry was clearly written on his face. "Argus here will be driving you guys to the bus station and after that, you will be on your own." At the mention of his name, our head security gave us a nod of acknowledgement. "And here's some golden drachma for you, in case you run into an emergency. Don't forget, mortals won't accept them, so in this duffle bag, there's also some cash. There isn't much so spend them wisely." Annabeth thanked Chiron and accepted the parting gift. She, too, had a backpack slung over one of her shoulders. The bright orange camp half blood t-shirt and jeans felt like she was an ordinary middle schooler going on a field trip rather than undergoing a quest to prevent a civil war among the Olympian family. In her hand was her trustworthy blue Yankee baseball cap, a gift from her mother when she turned seven. Next to her, Grover was also wearing a pair of jeans with fake feet attached to them. To cover up his barely visible horn, he opted to wear a cap to avoid potential unwanted commotions. At least they were all dressed in clothing that wouldn't hinder their physical movements much, since my demigod scent would no doubt overshadow theirs.

However, the attires and the amount of monsters that we would attract was the least of my concerns. The most pressing issue at the moment was my missing sword and I really hoped that Chiron would remember or else I would have to settle with the unbalanced blade that Luke handed me not too long ago.

"Percy," Chiron called as Annabeth, Grover, and I trailed behind Argus towards the minivan parked on the street. Turning around, I gazed at the centaur with anticipation. "Can we talk for a moment? It won't take much of your time." I motioned the other two to follow Argus and made my way to the waiting centaur.

"What is it?" The way I delivered myself was direct, but I wasn't trying to be rude. Knowingly, Chiron handed me the item that I had been anticipating the entire time.

"This is a gift from your father," he said as I accepted the Celestial Bronze sword disguised as a ball-point pen. "Make good use of it. Remember that Celestial Bronze doesn't do any harm to mortals, but can be deadly to demigods."

Instinctively, I uncapped the pen and a three - foot long Celestial Bronze sword sprang to life. Though the amazement towards the beautifully crafted blade had diminished throughout the years of using it, having my most trusted partner back with me certainly did feel marvelous. "Anaklusmos…" I muttered under my breath.

"Or Riptide," Chiron offered. "The current that takes one by surprise. This sword has a long and tragic history that I won't be going through. Wield it with honor, make your father proud, Perseus." I faltered a bit when Chiron used my given name, instead of referring to me as Percy, making me realize the seriousness from his statement.

Anaklusmos, the blade crafted by Zoe Nightshade in the ancient times and once wielded by Heracles to defeat the hundred headed dragon, Ladon, when he was performing his twelve labors to atone for his sins. This was also the spark that made the previous Hesperide to become the immortal lieutenant under Artemis' command.

As a result, it was only reasonable that I wield the blade in my hands with pride and glory in order to honor the huntress that I respected the most. The pompous and superficial attitude that the son of Zeus had would never sit well with me. To me, accomplishments were only the byproduct of saving and protecting the ones I cared for and loved.

"I understand," I accepted Chiron's words with a firm nod and glanced at the pen in my hand once again. I chide myself for almost beginning yet another journey down memory lane. Reminiscing about the past was impractical and could always be done later. The only journey that I needed to go on about was the quest of retrieving stolen objects before summer solstice. Other thoughts that had nothing to do with the objective itself were irrelevant and possibly distracting. "Then we will be on our way and will contact you if we run into any trouble," I reassured the worrisome centaur.

"I hope there are no troubles. I hope…" Chiron muttered anxiously. I decided to ignore his remarks and simply waved goodbye before heading for Annabeth and Grover.

"Sorry for making you wait," I apologized to them once I reached the bottom of the hill where the white campus van was parked.

"No worries, Percy," Grover reassured me. "It didn't take long. Plus, there must be a reason why Chiron wanted to talk to you."

On the side, Annabeth studied me a bit and chimed in, "What did Chiron tell you?" Her query was within my expectations, and since there was no reason for me conceal the conversation between Chiron and I, I told her truthfully.

"It was nothing special," I told her. Before she could cut me off by drilling me with more questions, I continued on. "He gave me this," I said and showed them the ball-point pen. "It's a gift from my dad."

"A pen?" Annabeth looked at me in confusion, and I could almost see the questions marks floating on top of her head. "Why would he give you a pen?"

"Well," I began and uncapped the pen. "It's not really a pen, but it can be." For the second time of the day, the bronze blade sprung to life, earning myself some gasps and astonishments.

"It's really gorgeous," Annabeth said in awe while studying the craftsmanship. "Though it looked unordinary at the first glance, it's actually a really functional piece. The fuller right here is able to lighten the blade without sacrificing any of the blade's integrity. That's not the most important part. Look at the quillon -"

"Yes, Annabeth I totally understand everything you said," Grover said sarcastically before addressing me. "I'm more interested in how you can write with it."

"Hey!" Annabeth protested indignantly but blushed slightly afterwards.

"Well," I began with a chuckle, failing to hide my own amusement. The scene unfolding in front of me triggered my nostalgia, reminding me the times where Annabeth would always give us her analysis on architects, craftworks, and basically everything else. It could definitely be mentally exhausting at times with the bulk of information she would sprout out, but I did learn a thing or two, though it was a wiser choice to not voice that out since it would only encourage her. "We can always discuss my pen later, but right now I think we should get going. Argus is waiting for us," I pointed at the head security of the camp who was currently leaning against the driver's side door lazily. Welp, let's hope nothing too troublesome would happen.

*Scene Break

"Pst, Annabeth," I whispered while shaking her shoulder gently. "Wake up. We're here."

As expected, as soon as we got in the van, both Annabeth and Grover fell asleep while I stared outside of the window, drinking in the morning view of Manhattan. It wasn't like your typical busy New York, honking sounds rampaging along with music blasting from the car next to you. No, it was quiet, a sense of tranquility of rural life, and I grimaced a bit when I imagined that the calmness would be disturbed once New York woke up. After going through my entire life with chaos, I came to appreciate the morning stillness and the late night serenity. Despite the fact that I was a Yankee by heart, I found it ironic that I was slowly rejecting the hectic atmosphere from the city.

"Stop it… Let me sleep some more," she protested with a frown and brushed my hand off of her. Sighing mentally at her childish display, I decided to leave her be and tended to Grover instead.

"Hey G-Man," I said. "Time to go." The fact that he remained still told me two things: Either he didn't hear me or was ignoring me. Alright then. I guess I had to use plan B.

With a wicked smile, I inched my face towards Annabeth slowly and whispered in her ears," Hey Annabeth, is that a tarantula crawling on your neck?" As soon as I finished, I gently blew some air, generating some tingling sensation, and unsurprisingly, it worked like wonder. Almost instantly, she jumped up from her seat with a yelp and looked at me fearfully.

"W-Where? Get it off of me!" Instead of panicking and shrieking like most would, the way Annabeth delivered herself was as if she was about to faint. A tinge of guilt was felt, and I realized that I might have went too far with my prank. In response, I patted her neck a few times, pretending to flick away the made up monstrosity in order to calm her down.

"It's gone now," I reassured her. "Are you ok?" Instead of telling her the truth, I chose to go with my prank to prevent Annabeth from going ballistic on me later on. Sometimes, it was worth lying if that meant a life could be saved...

Truly, I had become quite corrupted throughout the years, and I would have to thank Leo for that. What a terrible influence...

"Y-Y-Yea," Annabeth managed to stutter out. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem," I responded with a wry smile. "That's what friends are for right? On the bright side, you and Grover seemed to be awake now."

My attempt of changing subject to avoid any suspicion that Annabeth could arise seemed to be successful as Grover weren't able to sleep through the ruckus from earlier. "Blehh," the satyr bleated, looking around nervously. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I quickly answered him before Annabeth could and continued. "Anyway, we're at the bus stop. Argus won't be able to take us any further." As we were talking, the camp's head security had parked the car, currently waiting for us to gather our belongings. People were starting to appear around the bus station, but thanks to the power of Mist, the onlookers never paid attention to Argus' odd features of having eyeballs all over his body. It may look somewhat sketch when a grown man was escorting three children out of a white minivan, but due to the fact that adults were too occupied by their phones, wild accusations such as human trafficking never came up.

"Well," I began once we got situated. "Thank you for dropping us off." Instead of speaking up, he gave us a wink and a thumbs up before departing in the van. Legends said that Argus had an eyeball on his tongue, thus explained why he wasn't a talkative person, but even after all these years, I never got to confirm the myth myself.

"Soooo, what now?" Grover looked around nervously, while trying to sniff out any danger. This was one advantage of having a satyr accompany us. The ability to smell out potential threats and monsters was extremely valuable for preventive measures, allowing us to plan ahead instead of getting startled by the unknowns. That being said, no matter how fantastic it may sound, unfortunately, it didn't make us completely monster proof. The problem lay within Grover, whose ability to perform and level of nervousness had an inverse relationship. The last time at St. Louis arc was a prime example of his power going awry due to anxiety, leading to Echidna ambushing me in the elevator. Thankfully, the Mist was able to blind the mortals from discovering the monstrosity that could traumatize them for eternity. The icing on that proverbial cake was that no one was injured, but the entire event was an extremely close call.

"We line up and wait for the bus to come," Annabeth stated as a matter of factly. Embarrassed, Grover scratched his head sheepishly and made an "oh" sound.

As they began to make their way to the now populating line, I spoke up, "Do you know where to go?"

At my question, the pair froze and looked at questioningly. "The Underworld, seaweed brain. I thought we went over this?" Annabeth said while cocking her head to the side. Grover nodded nervously, apparently disliking the fact that our destination was a dark abyss filled with death souls.

"But do you know where the entrance is?" I pointed out.

Annabeth opened and closed her mouth. Then she reopened them again just to find that nothing came out of her mouth. After several failed attempts of formulating a response, she opted to give up and spoke in a defensive manner. "Do you know then?"

"Fortunately, I do," I told her and she looked at me skeptically.

"And where is it?"

"Los Angeles," I said, but gave her an alternative option. "Unless Grover knows how to play some charming music with his reed pipe. If he can, then we don't have to travel that far." At my statement, both Annabeth and I gazed at Grover. Apparently, my inquiry about his skills only added unnecessary anxiety to the already distraught satyr.

"Blehh," he bleated again, not fond of the amount of attention he was receiving from us. "Stop staring me like that. I'm not good at music...I'm a failure…" Afterwards, he covered up his face with his hands and started sobbing. The emotional breakdown was an unforeseen outcome, and for a second, I was too stunned to react.

"Hey don't worry," I began when Annabeth punched me in the arms and glared at me disapprovingly. "I don't know where the shortcut is to begin with. All I know is that Orpheus did it once." It was a lie, but a necessary one to cease any self-loathing from him.

Truth was, during the Titan War, Grover's music was the one that opened up the secret passage in Central Park down to the Underworld, where Nico took me to the world's greatest bath house-The River Styx. After failing his second mission as the protector with me, Grover's confidence only further plummeted, resulting in him not believing that he was capable of accomplishing great feats. However, lack of self confidence was not something that could be fixed within a short amount of time, as a result, I decided to continue on. "So like I said, the other entrance is in L.A, so we should take bus 925 and then get off at this stop to change transportation," I pointed at the map that was given next to the bus station as I explained our next course of action.

Next to me Annabeth eyed me suspiciously. "How did you know that the entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles?"

"I asked Chiron," I told her. When in doubt, simply bring out Chiron's name since it had served as a marvelous way of shielding myself from undesirable questions thus far. Once again, the effect was deemed extraordinary, seeing as how Annabeth nodded in understanding and moved along with the conversation. A part of me did wonder how much longer would this trickery last, since in times, her observation skills would definitely allow her to catch on, so I mentally noted to myself that I had to either be more careful with information handling or come up with other answers that did not involve the centaur.

"Hmm," Annabeth hummed and agreed with my statement. "We'll do as you say. In the meantime, I'll come up with some backup plans in case something goes wrong."

That was a very Annabeth-like thing and involuntarily, I gave out a small chuckle. She did look at me questioningly, but decided not to press onwards when I responded with a shrug. At the same time, a newly arrived bus with numbers 925 written on the top also signified the end of our short discussion. Some people who were seated on the bench got up and joined the now forming line while others remained seated, waiting for the right bus to turn up. Naturally, we merged in as the last party in line.

Promptly, a tingling sensation went down my spine, but I fought down the urge to look around. We were being observed from somewhere, and the last thing I wanted to do was to alert the pursuers. If I didn't alter Fate so much, I would assume that the stalkers were the three Furies, sent by Hades to retrieve his Helm of Darkness. However, that was a preconception only if the settings around me remained constant. The change of prophecy and downstream events could lead to an endless amount of possibilities, so to assume that the three Furies were the ones observing us would be a rash call. That being said, there was always a slight possibilities that they were pursuing us, since their objective was to return the stolen symbol of power, which Hades, assumed that I stole it. Ultimately, this whole quest was issued due to misunderstandings and baseless accusations and assumptions.

If it turned out that the Furies were monitoring us, then the whole situation would be less complicated where I could simply confront them and tell them the truth that Luke and Ares were the instigators of this mess. The likelihood of them believing my words were close to zero percent, though if I could get the War God to reveal the scheme himself, that would be a different story. On the contrary, if it was someone else, then things could be quite tricky. The fact that I would be left in the unknown made it extremely difficult for me to prepare any preventive measurements. Annabeth and Grover were still too naive and inexperienced when it came down to being reactive to different scenarios. There was absolutely no way that I would put them in harm. No, I would do anything to protect them no matter what it took.

Well, there was no point in dwelling in this seemingly frustrating situation. It seemed like Annabeth and Grover failed to notice the gaze that was sent in our direction, and I planned on using their ignorance to my advantage. If I notified them, it would only cause unwanted commotion, thereby alerting whoever was secretly tailing us from behind.

But something felt off. I failed to detect any form of animosity despite the fact that the pursuer seemed to be concealing their power. Nonetheless, this didn't mean that I should let my guard down since killing intent could always arise from a dormant state.

"Let's go over the plan again," Annabeth proposed after we sat down at the very back of the bus. Since nothing could be done now, I chose not to allow needless concerns to overwhelm me and decided to join in the conversation.

"Annabeth please," I told her, punching the bridge of my nose. "We went over the plan at least three times already. You need to relax."

At my statement, the daughter of Athena blushed embarrassingly. "But Grover doesn't know about them yet. Right Grover?" She spoke up defensively and glared daggers at Grover. Under the pressure of Annabeth's gaze, Grover could only nod in agreement, making her give me a "I told you so" look. I sighed mentally after realizing that there was no other way to get around her stubbornness. Though the fact that Grover didn't know our discussion wasn't an entirely false statement either. From my own understanding, his knowledge of this quest was only limited to Chirons' deductive reasonings and the short conversation we had at the Big House with Dionysus. Evidently, Chiron was proven to be wrong when he claimed Hades to be the thief, however, that didn't mean I shouldn't believe anything he said. By incorporating Grover into our strategy session could only be beneficial in an objective standpoint since he may provide crucial information or possibilities that I could be overlooking.

"I mean, Grover already knows the gist of it," I pointed out and teased her lightly. "Remember the conversation you were eavesdropping on?"

"Hey," Annabeth protested. "I only did it to see if you will follow through what you said, you know, requesting me as one of your quest member."

"I said I will," I told her with my head tilted to the side. "Did you not trust me?"

"It's not that," she responded while waving her hands in front of her. "I-I'm sorry for doubting you…"

Even though she mumbled the last part, it was still loud enough for me to catch it. Honestly, she didn't need to apologize since her uncertainty was understandable. "No worries, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad."

"But how did you know I was there?" In order to diffuse her uneasiness, she opted to change topic and posed a rather difficult question. "How did you know I was invisible?"

"Well," I began carefully as I thought about how I should answer her query. The current Annabeth was still too inexperienced at concealing her presence, so the moment she snuck up to the Big House, I was able to discern her position. "During that time, I felt someone was gazing at me. Since no one else was around, it could only be you and your invisibility cap." I shrugged after I gave her my hasty explanation, to which she looked at me with widened eyes.

"What do you mean you can feel my gaze?" she asked incredulously, not believing what I just said.

"It means I could literally feel you watching at me," I answered. "You know the saying **insert phrase.** I'm sure something similar have happened to you before." After contemplating for a brief moment, Annabeth nodded slowly in understanding. "Anyway," I continued, bringing the conversation back on track. "It is just as I said, Grover already knew what was going on and where we'll be heading. I think Grover should tell us if he learned anything from Chiron, considering how little amount of information we have in hand, anything will be deemed useful."

My reasoning ended with Annabeth staring at Grover expectantly. "Well, umm," he stammered as he attempted to give his own input. "Chiron didn't tell me much, but he did give me a warning."

"And that is?" Annabeth asked eagerly.

"He told me to be extra cautious because something doesn't add up," Grover said and frowned. "But he didn't tell me why he is feeling that way though."

"Hmm," Annabeth hummed in response. The whole time, I remained in silence. Since the get go, I already knew something was odd, solely based on the strange change in the prophecy though I didn't have enough information to assuredly predict the outcomes. "I'm not entirely sure what Chiron means. Isn't all evidence pointing directly at Hades? What do you think, Percy?"

I was surprised by the fact that Annabeth had been asking for my opinion whenever an intricate situation arose. It was true that I seemed to be knowledgeable, after knowing what was suppose to go down on the day of summer solstice as well as the entrance to the Underworld, so in a sense, it was understandable that she would seek information from me. However, what really flabbergasted me wasn't that but her hubris. Speaking strictly from past experience, it was odd for Annabeth to seek help from others. To a perfectionist like her, collaboration with others meant probable disagreements, resulting in her inability to achieve a quintessential outcome. Maybe the circumstances were different compared to that of my previous life time, nonetheless, I was still not used to this change. I mean, I had always been the one asking the question.

"I'm not sure either." Technically that wasn't a lie since I was also in the dark regarding to the future that awaited for us. The only thing I knew was that Hades wasn't the thief after confronting Luke about it couple days ago. "But never mind that for now. It seemed that we've arrived."

Leeds Point, New Jersey, a place where it brought back memories. Different from last time, the Furies didn't appear to intercept us, causing a ruckus where the bus got blew up into pieces. It would be a lie if I said I was expecting this kind of peacefulness so far, considering that I was a child of a Big Three who was supposed to attract abundant of monsters. But hey, I wasn't going to complain and that I would chalk this up as a win in my book.

Last time, we were forced off of the bus at this stop due to the unexpected attacks launched by the Furies, but this time I opted to get off at this stop for one purpose. "So who's hungry?" I turned and asked as we watched the bus departed. It was still a bit far away from noon, but considering that we hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, I had been starving.

"I am," Grover raised his hand enthusiastically. Seemed like the topic of food had restore some of his recently lost cheeriness. "But is there anywhere we can eat?"

"About that," I said with a wry smile. "Leave it to me."

*Scene Break*

"Should be here somewhere…" I muttered to myself while Annabeth and Grover trailed behind me. "Ah, there it is. Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."

"Um Percy," Annabeth looked at the entrance skeptically. "I don't think a garden full of statues will sell food."

"Yeah," Grover voiced out his agreement. "Also, this place doesn't feel right."

"Nonsense," waving my hands at them dismissively, I chided them and continued on marching forward. "I've been here before. The burgers and fries are pretty good." I paused at my track when I realized that they stopped at the entrance. "I mean, if you rather starve, then by all means, but I'm craving for some food right now."

The two of them looked at each other and reluctantly followed my track. It was no surprise that they were suspicious of the place, especially since Grover was able to detect any monsters within a certain proximity with his nose. Even though the place was called Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, it was actually the lair of the infamous Gorgon, Medusa.

Out of the three sisters, Medusa was claimed to be the most beautiful one, thereby catching Poseidon's attention. Unfortunately for them, either due to unlucky timing or Poseidon's lack of awareness from being clouded by love, Athena caught them committing disrespectful acts in her sacred temple. For punishment, the proud goddess that felt insulted turned Medusa into the now fearful Gorgon who could petrify anyone upon any eye contacts. The same result was bestowed on her sisters, not because of Athena's merciless decision but the fact that the sisters wanted to share the punishments.

By sheer accident, we ended up at Medusa's lair last time, nearly became one of her collections. Who knew, if Grover never realized Aunty Em's true identity by stumbling upon his uncle Ferdinand's statue and suddenly remembering that Medusa was responsible for Ferdinand's death, we might have ended up at the Garden of Persephone as three lovely statues. This place was a trap, that I knew, however the deadliness of traps usually lie in the surprise factor. With foreknowledge of the dangers, this trap is far from dangerous in my opinion.

"Ah welcome," a silky voice spoke up right as we set foot into the front yard. "What brings you three lovely children here? It's rare to see a customer nowadays." The woman in front of us wore a black gown and dressed in a middle eastern style with black veils covering up her entire face. A hint of sadness was laced in the voice, but I ignored it and answered her.

"I heard Aunty Em has good burgers and fries," I said. "And since we haven't eaten anything all day, we decided to drop by." At my side, Grover and Annabeth only looked at me nervously.

There was a short pause before Medusa spoke up again. "Is that so, then follow me."

While we were walking, Annabeth nudged my shoulder and whispered harshly. "Percy, this is definitely not a good idea. You're acting way too rashly. We don't even know who this is!"

"Hmm?" Medusa asked without stopping her movements. "What's not a good idea?"

"Oh it's nothing," I glanced at Annabeth meaningfully, hoping she would get the cue to stop questioning before turning my attention back to the monster. "My friend here is doubting your food quality that's all."

"No, I'm not!" Annabeth protested.

"You can tell your friend not to worry." Due to the fact that she had her face covered, I wasn't able to discern her expression.

"Ah, she's more of a practical person," I explained. "She will become a believer once she tries it."

"If that's the case," she began while scratching the bottom of her chin. "I know just the right thing for you. How does deluxe cheese burger with bacon sounds?"

"That sounds fantastic," I immediately voiced out my opinion. Honestly at this point, my growling stomach would take in anything even if she were to offer me an entree made by Apollo and Hermes. Apollo would try to make the dish glow in gold by adding unnecessary amount of gold dust while Hermes would come up with ridiculous ideas that might not even be edible.

"Wait a second," Grover spoke up suspiciously as the conversation progressed while we walked through the garden. "This looks like uncle Ferdinand!"

"Oh? Really?" Medusa asked innocently. "That's quite a coincidence."

"This really does look like him…" Grover muttered to himself as he scrutinized the statue that he stumbled upon.

"Um Grover," I spoke up, attempting to divert his attention from the statue in front of him. If he somehow drew connections between the lively looking statue and the death of his uncle, then it might spoil my plan of taking down Medusa discreetly. "I think you have it mixed up. You tend to think that everyone looks similar."

"No I don't," Grover spoke up defensively. "I mean…"

"You mean you want me to bring up the time where you thought Nancy and Ellen were the same person?" I pressed onwards, reminding him that embarrassing moment. Seriously, how did he mix up a short and stubby girl that had orange freckles and red curly hair with a tall and slim girl that had light shaded, long brunette hair. When I asked him why he was hiding in the bathroom, he claimed that he saw Nancy when in reality it was Ellen.

"...Fine, you're right."

"So let's not overthink things alright?" I dismissed him and he gave me a nod, but a hint of doubt could be seen in his eyes. This whole time, both Annabeth and Medusa remained in silence, the former had her brows furrowed in contemplation, and the latter remained still despite the fact that she was the one who petrified Ferdinand. Admittedly, my attempt to divert Grover's thought was not completely successful, seeing as how I left plenty of suspicion in the air. Though it might work on Grover, I doubt it would fool Annabeth, simply because my reasoning lacked logic.

"Come on children," Medusa urged as she gestured the table to her side. "Take a seat and your food will be ready shortly." After flashing her a polite smile, I began to formulate a plan to assassinate the gorgon in front of me.

*Scene Break

"Wow," Grover exclaimed with a mouthful of food. "You're absolutely right. This is delicious!"

"Grover!" Annabeth chided before taking another bite into her burger. "Don't talk with your mouth full!"

"Sorry mom," Grover rolled his eyes and snickered before shoving some crispy french fries down his throat. At Grover's remark, Annabeth glared at him briefly, which the latter gazed in my direction for assistance, but for entertainment purposes, I pretended that I never noticed and continued working on my burger happily. Truly, I was a terrible friend.

"But Percy," Annabeth gave Grover one last death glare before drawing her attention to me. "I hate to admit, but…"

"But…?" I smirked and prompted her to go on.

"But you're right," she sighed and I raised my brows. "This is very tasty."

"You sounded very surprised," I pointed out dryly at her reluctance of accepting the truth. "You think I'll suggest something that's not at least above average?"

"Uh yeah, obviously," Annabeth stated as a matter of factly before finishing the burger. After wiping her hands clean with the napkins provided, she took a sip from her cup and continued lightheartedly. "I wouldn't expect too high of standards from a seaweed brain like you," she said as she took a fry out from the tray. "Mmm, it's so crisp. I love it."

"I see how it is, wise girl," I began wryly with the nostalgic nickname that I had given her years ago. Of course, courtesy of Thalia, who preferred to show her affection through insults and physical abusements, more creative names such as kelp-for-brain or kelp head came to life. It was baffling that she expected me to sit idly from her cringe worthy nicknames, so in retaliation, I started calling her pinecone face and sparky. The face of bewilderment and disbelief when she realized what I did was so hilarious that I was immediately greeted by a bolt of lightning the moment I began laughing.

With a soft chuckle, Medusa spoke up, "Annabeth my dear, you should stop teasing Percy." The moment the monstrosity in front of us mentioned our names, my body immediately tensed up. It seemed that neither Grover nor Annabeth realized the fact that Aunty Em knew our names without inquiring us. Sure, Annabeth mentioned both Grover and I earlier while we were eating, but we never brought up the name Annabeth.

Instead of showing my suspicion, I immediately relaxed my body and pretended nothing had happened. Since the very beginning, I never intended to let them get involved and that I would protect them from all harm. My plan was simple: kill Medusa discreetly and no one would be the wiser.

"Yeah," I nodded innocently and agreed with Medusa. Despite the fact that I was only planning to take down the gorgon seconds ago, I never allowed my expression to falter or give off any sign that could foil my plan. "You should really listen to Aunty Em here."

"Hey," Annabeth protested, but before she could continue, Aunty Em interrupted her.

"Now, now," Aunty Em chided us. "There's no reason to mean back to Annabeth, Percy." At her words, Annabeth immediately gave me a look as if saying "See? I'm not the only mean one here" while the only expression Grover showed was that of nervous laughters. "Since you're done with your food, will you mind if I take a picture? You guys are so adorable!"

Alright, time to initiate my plan.

This was her usual trick: serve delicious food then charm people into getting their picture taken when in reality she would reveal the curse from Athena and petrify the mortals. Afterwards, a big portion of the statues would be shipped to Persephone herself in exchange for golden drachmas.

The three of us nearly became the victim if not for the fact that Grover managed to figure out that Aunty Em was actually a pseudonym for Medusa in the very last moment. Even though Medusa didn't have the ability to charmspeak like the Love Goddess herself, the seductive voice she had almost made me forget about the ongoing quest. It was a wonder that we actually made it out alive.

"Sure," Grover voiced out his opinion first by raising his hand in excitement. Annabeth hesitated but nodded her head slowly in response. "What about you Percy?" Both of my friends looked at me when they realized I hadn't give them an answer yet.

"I think that will be a fantastic idea," I voice out my agreement, though the fantastic idea I was referring to was sending this monster back to Tartarus, not the part about picture taking. "But can you show me where the bathroom is first?"

"Go to the courtyard and take a right," Medusa stated simply and I headed out the door promptly. There was no telling what Medusa would do to Annabeth and Grover while I was gone, but being anxious over such thing would only hinder my actions. So after I left the room, I swiftly put my plan into action.

"Uh Aunty Em, the bathroom door seems to be locked." Even though it was cheesy, this was also the best way to isolate Medusa and I. Thus after reaching the bathroom door, I manipulated the water molecules in the air, froze the door knob, then proceeded to return back to the room.

At my declaration, Medusa remained silent, but spoke up shortly afterwards. "Oh? Is that so. Come, I'll unlock the door for you then." Fishing out the a key from one of the drawers, she got up and motioned me to follow.

Once we reached the bathroom, Medusa walked up and tugged gently on the doorknob before letting out a soft chuckle. "My, my, Perseus. Did your father tell you to play around with your power like this?"

"No," I said flatly. "But I don't like what you're planning."

"And that is?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Medusa." At the mention of the monster's true identity, the temperature of the room seemed to drop and faint hissing sound could be heard from her head.

"So you knew, huh?" Medusa asked and I nodded briefly in confirmation. "What a shame," she sighed. "I was thinking of letting you and that satyr live after I killed that disgusting daughter of Athena if you remained ignorant, but I guess I will have to kill you as well."

"I think you are mistaken," I said while cocking my head to the side, casually slipping my hand into my pocket. "The one dying today is not me, but you."

It started off as soft chuckling, then the chuckling slowly became that of hysterical laughter full of disbelief. "Tsk, tsk," Medusa chided me as if she was scolding a little child. "Aren't you getting too ahead of yourself? You think a demigod like you can kill me? Don't be ridiculous."

"I mean, didn't the original Perseus kill you?" I pointed out the event that happened millennia ago.

"You dare speak of such thing?" Medusa snarled at me, agitated by my remark. Good, that was what I was aiming for. Someone who was overcome by emotions would not be able to react rationally, and in this case, triggering an unpleasant memory from the past seemed to achieve the same result. "If not for the fact that he attacked me while I was asleep, I would have ripped him apart."

"Perhaps," I nodded. "But in the end, you still lost, so none of that matters. What matters is that you're going to die before you can cause any more harm to my friends and other innocent mortals."

Without any other word, I uncapped Riptide and lunged myself forward with incredible speed. I became fast, I became a blur, and within a second, I had closed the gap between the two of us. The moment she realized her mistake for underestimating me, my bronze sword also found its target. With a pierced heart, the monstrosity before me burst into golden dust and its essence returned back to Tartarus. As a spoil of war, her gorgon head with its petrifying power still remaining was left at my feet. Carefully, I picked it up and placed it in a cardboard box that I found lying somewhere near a statue of a couple holding hands in the courtyard. Those poor souls never knew what killed them, but hopefully they were at least enjoying their afterlives.

Swiftly, I made my way back to Annabeth and Grover while mentally noting to come back for the box later. The entire process of disposing Medusa took a bit longer than I had expected though it was mostly my fault for continuing the conversation. It was never meant to be a prolonged fight, but the fact that she went down without any resistance did surprise me a bit. Either way, I was satisfied with the result, so there was no point of me complaining about an effortless fight.

"Oh hey, Percy! You're back," Grover greeted me as I entered the room. "What took you so long?"

"Uh... my stomach wasn't feeling too well," I lied effortlessly while pointing at my stomach and Grover gave an "Ah" and nodded in sympathy.

"Alright," I addressed the two of them. "Let's get going, shall we? We don't have much time to spare."

"Yeah you're right," Grover agreed and got up from his seat, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "But where's Aunty Em? We should say our goodbyes and thank her for the amazing food!"

"Don't worry," I reassured the satyr. "Aunty Em told me that we are free to leave anytime earlier since she has some business to attend to." It required a decent amount of self control to stop myself from giving a wry smile at my own statement. I mean, it wasn't a complete lie. Afterall, Medusa did have some business to attend to, except the said business had something to do with reuniting with her friends down in Tartarus.

Likewise, Annabeth got up and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "We need to figure out how to secure a transportation first," she told me while resting her hand under her chin in contemplation. "A train, perhaps? But I don't think we have enough money to make it across the country."

I smiled a bit and told her, "Don't worry about that. I got it covered." While she looked at me confusingly, an evil smile morphed into existence as I thought about my next action.

*Scene Break*

"Where did you get all the extra cash from?" Annabeth asked me suspiciously. A little after finishing the meal, I once again used my "upset stomach" excuse and headed back towards Medusa's office with two objectives in mind.

First, I took a page from Herme's book and "borrowed" some golden drachmas and dollar bills. Like I said, I was simply borrowing, putting the resources into good uses, so naturally, I'll return everything I took today back to Medusa the next time I see her. Though after that one sided fight, I wasn't sure if she had the willpower to reform, and even if she did, there was no guarantee that I wouldn't pierce her again with a three foot long bronze sword as a welcome back gift.

It was a bit surprising that she kept most of the mortal cash from the victims that had fallen to her petrifying gaze, considering that Greek mythological creatures only used golden drachmas as their currency. Turns out, the amount of cash that Medusa had was only enough to get us to St. Louis. At the same time, it was quite ironic how after all the changes I had made so far, Fate still wished for me to go to St. Louis. I wouldn't say my first visit there five years ago was pleasant, unless fighting Echidna and getting bit by her rabid, fire breathing chihuahua was evaluated as an enjoyable event.

The other thing I had in mind was the cardboard box with Medusa's head in it. Instead of mailing said package to Mt. Olympus to piss the gods off, I opted for a different route. This time around, I wasn't exactly annoyed at the gods for making my fate such a chaotic one. I wasn't frustrated and mad at the gods for sending us on this silly quest, nearly getting us killed in several occasions. Nay, now I was doing it for my friends and myself and retrieving the Master Bolt was merely a byproduct of my true objective. Thus, grabbing a delivery slip from Medusa' office, I filled in my home address in Manhattan and my mom's name before pouring some golden drachma into the cash register machine. Before I knew it, a small 'poof' went off and the package was delivered. I couldn't deny the satisfied smile growing on my face as I watched the package send.

"My wallet, of course," I stated as a matter of factly while handing out the tickets. "Here, this is yours Grover. And here you go, Annabeth."

"Thanks," Annabeth replied but wasn't satisfied by my response. "But what do you mean your wallet?"

"It's exactly what I said, my wallet. Those were my savings," I lied to her shamelessly, hoping that would end the conversation. Sometimes, the daughter of Athena asked way too many questions. "Come on, the train is leaving soon." Thankfully, the thought of missing our ride was able to distract Annabeth from my cursory response.

Since Medusa only had a decent amount of cash and that I didn't want to use up all of our expenses on train tickets in case of an emergency later on, we didn't have those comfy and luxurious looking seats that others had. That being said, I was totally fine with it. Compared to camping in the harsh winter of Alaska while I was undergoing a quest at Camp Jupiter or sleeping on the deck of the _Argo II_ during our journey to ancient Greece, the spot I was sitting on right now felt like marshmallows to me. After going through all the hardships, I learned the important lesson of cherishing what you have in the present before you realize that it was gone.

Giving me the biggest goat yawn, Grover muttered to us, "I'm going to nap a bit. Wake me up when we arrive." Without waiting for any confirmations, Grover pulled his baseball cap down, covering his entire face with it. There was a moment of silence afterwards where I stared outside of the window, allowing my mind to wonder on its own while Annabeth seemed to be doing the same until Grover's thunderous snoring sound startled the two of us.

"Jeez Grover," I muttered under my breath as I glanced over at the sleeping satyr. "You just had to ruin the peacefulness."

"Give him a break," Annabeth gave a small smile and chided me. "He seemed extremely tensed ever since we left the camp."

"I could tell," I nodded in agreement, and I could understand the reasons behind it. Five years ago in this current timeline, Grover was responsible for escorting Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth to camp half blood. Being daughter of Zeus, Thalia naturally possessed a stronger scent to attract the monsters, therefore the way back to the camp wasn't a merry one. To make matters worse, the Lord of the Dead himself wasn't pleased by the fact that Zeus broke the oath, so poor Thalia was the recipient of Hades' wrath. However, the title of daughter of Zeus wasn't for show. Her natural prowess and expertise with her spear was able to fend off the assaults until Grover made a wrong turn.

It wasn't his fault that he cracked under the pressure and got deceived by a cyclops on the way. But because of this delay, the monsters caught up, and in order to save her friends, Thalia made a last stand on top of the hill outside of the camp's border. Right before she breathed her dying last breath, Zeus turned her into a pine tree that now protected and watched over the camp on half blood hill.

Obviously, the one to shoulder the responsibility was Grover, resulting in the Council of Cloven Elders to revoke his chance of getting a searcher's license. Annabeth and Luke, along with other campers never blamed him, but in the end, he still failed his objective of protecting Thalia. Ever since then, he had been beating himself over his past mistake. Besides using this opportunity of accompany me on the quest to obtain his searcher's license, he also wanted to redeem himself. Perhaps it was because of the fear of failing again, he had been acting extra nervous, and unfortunately, there wasn't much for me to do about it.

"Maybe it's because that satyrs don't like to be underground?" I wasn't supposed to know about Thalia yet, so I brought up the only fact that we all knew. Besides, bringing up the dead daughter of Zeus might bring up some unpleasant memories. "He told me that few days ago when we were discussing about the quest."

Glancing out of the window, Annabeth agreed half heartedly, "Maybe…" There was no doubt that she was reminiscing about the past event, so I decided to end the conversation.

"Hey Percy," after a brief moment, Annabeth spoke up, still staring at the grass plain that we were crossing. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Fire away."

"Don't you think something is weird?"

"Hmm?" I raised an eyebrow at her question, encouraging her to continue.

"Since the start of the quest, we haven't come across a single monster," Annabeth pointed out suspiciously.

"Isn't that good?"

"Normally yes," she answered, now turning to face me. "But you're a child of Big Three. Your scent alone should be attracting a lot of monsters."

"Oh really? I didn't know that," I feigned ignorance and decided to wait and see what she had to say. "But still doesn't change the fact that things are going on quite nicely for us. Instead of complaining, shouldn't we be grateful?"

"No, this doesn't feel right," she muttered to herself again while tugging on her necklace, something she did whenever she felt anxious. "When something goes this smoothly, it means something fishy is going on."

"Why are you being so pessimistic?"

"You mean realistic?" Annabeth countered. "I mean, where are the Kindly Ones? I'm surprised that we haven't run into them yet."

"Who knows, they might be busy with something else," I said.

"But what is more important than retrieving the missing symbol of power?" This time, I had nothing else to say. We did run into monsters, but I couldn't just tell her that Aunty Em was actually Medusa and that I killed her in less than a second when I went to the bathroom. I couldn't tell her that some anonymous individual had been following us since we were at the bus station either. The presence, though faint, was still here, but judging by the fact that it hadn't strike yet, I was willing to let it slide. For now.

As for her second concern about the Furies, it was something that I had been mulling over as well. It really was quite abnormal for them to not show up this far into the quest. "Then what do you propose?" I asked instead while laying back into my seat. "You're our brain here."

"I'm not sure," she paused a bit and answered hesitantly. "I don't have enough information in hand to make the most logical decision. This whole thing feels like a mess so far. Besides, you've been the one taking the lead and coming up with plans so far, why are you asking me?" Towards the end, I could sense some bitterness in her voice, and I understood perfectly where that came from. Being the daughter of Athena, in fact the smartest in the camp, Annabeth had always been the brain. Well, until now I guess. However, that didn't change the fact that I would still trust Annabeth's judgement without giving a second thought and that she was still the smartest person I knew. The only reason I seemed to be more competent and logical than Annabeth was merely because of my accumulated experiences from the past.

Her hubris could also be playing a role in the bitterness that she was feeling. The desire to be the very best, and the ego of thinking that everyone else was below her was a flaw that all children of Athena carried. Fortunately, Annabeth was able to control her pride and ego fairly well with the help of Thalia and I.

Decide to cheer her up a bit, I said, "Listen Annabeth, I'm not as smart as you think. I had a dream last night where my dad gave me some guidance, that's why I had a rough idea of what to do. We're a team. We're here to help each other out." Even though what I said wasn't entirely true, my goal was to cheer her up not by feeding her ego, but point out the essence of teamwork.

"It's just that, I'm not used to it," Annabeth sighed and admitted. "People always came to me for answers. I've always been the one coming up with strategies for capture the flag and other camp activities. But now… but now it feels really frustrating to be unable to take charge." Before I could come up with some encouraging words, she continued. It was as if a flood gate was opened - there was no longer a way to stop her anymore.

"Chiron was right all along. It's so different out here. All the trainings I did at the camp, all the books I read in my free time to help replenish my knowledge… none of that matters. There's so much unpredictability and variables that I can't control." I remained in silence the entire time while I listened to her.

What she said was the truth.

Sure, running around the camp and swinging your sword repeatedly everyday was good and all, but that could only do so much out here. Your routines would not save you if you froze in fear at the sight of a hellhound or panic because you were stuck in a dire situation. These were lessons that could only be learned through years of experiences, not hacking and slashing at straw dummies.

My journey through Tartarus should be a good enough example. It was not a daily occurrence that a demi-god fell into the dark abyss of torment and suffering, so naturally, Chiron and Dionysus wouldn't have a lesson on "How to survive if you fall into Tartarus 101". If Annabeth and I were to panic and rely solely on what we learned in the camp, then I wouldn't be here right now.

The two most important things that the camp didn't teach us were adaptability and flexibility. Why? Because the gods believed that we were in time of peace and that no one would have enough courage to rise up against the all mighty Olympians. To be able to adapt to any given situation and be flexible enough to formulate new plans with newly given information were the major things I learned. When Annabeth had to battle against Arcane, despite being in a disadvantage, she was still able to outsmart and trick the spider queen into falling into Tartarus.

Don't get me wrong, however. All the trainings we did at the camp still provided values to us. For example, without those endurance and strength trainings, then even if you were able to adapt to your opponent's, what good would it be if you simply collapsed due to exhaustion or not having enough power to strike your enemies down. The camp alone could shape you into a fighter, but that alone was not enough to make you a hero. A fighter was someone with only muscles, but no brains, like Ares or Hercules. If you were to rate strictly on raw power then those two were definitely at the top, but a hero was different.

Certain heroes may not have strength comparable to that of the legendary son of Zeus himself, but at times, one would find those heroes overcome their disadvantages by utilizing the surroundings to their advantage. The only problem was that this particular skill set required a lot of experiences and was not easily accomplished. Even I still had plenty to learn and sadly, I was probably still a novice, considering I only had less than a decade worth of experience.

I understood where Annabeth's frustration was coming from, but as of right now, I didn't have a way to help her. One thing I knew for sure was that Annabeth could be a bit stubborn at times and would always want to stick to her plans.

"What you said is true," I looked at her sympathetically, agreeing with what she said. "A lot of times, plans just don't work out the way we want them to be."

"So what are you trying to say?" she asked.

"Most of the time, things don't go the way we want. Only thing we can do is to adapt and come up with a new plan," I shrugged as I told her before pausing for a few seconds. "It's pointless to complain. The most practical thing to do is to work with what you got."

Digesting my words for a brief moment, she looked at me questionly, "Why does it sound like you are an expert at this?"

"Ah well," I tried my best to contain my own expression while searching for a response. "That's a story for another time, but for now, shouldn't you get some rest before we arrive?"

Now when I said searching for a response, I didn't say it would be a good one. Apparently, my answer to her query perked her interest, so instead of dismissing me and went to sleep like I hoped, she scooted herself forward to the edge of the seat while gleaming at me with anticipation. "Not unless you tell me."

Thankfully, Grover, being a fantastic friend, came to my aid. Stretching himself while rubbing his eyes, he turned and looked at us, "Guys, I'm hungry. Is there anything to eat?" Did we not just eat was my initial thought, nonetheless, I was thankful for this little distraction that he created.

*Scene Break*

"Fun fact, did you guys know that the arch is just as wide as its tall?" Annabeth told us as she was walking backwards facing us, giving the most in-depth and thorough guide on the Gateway Arch that any tourist could ask for.

Well... maybe too in-depth.

"Thank you Annabeth," I said with a smile. If I did my counting correctly, that was fun fact number ninety five, and I shuddered at the thought of allowing her to continue. "We agreed to be here for at most two hours. At this rate, I'm sure we will be stuck here for an entire day."

"Sorry," she flushed and scratched her head sheepishly. "It's just that - "

"Architect," I finished for her.

"How do you know?" she asked with surprise all over her face.

"Well, I thought all children of Athena are into these kind of stuff," I shrugged and replied.

"You made it sound like it's a bad thing."

"Don't get the wrong idea. I think it's pretty cool," I told her and she gave me an amusing look. Trying hard to fish out some random facts that Annabeth told me in the past about architecture, but unfortunately, I couldn't recall anything since I didn't really pay much attention. "Erm, I mean I don't know much but if the calculations is wrong, the arch will collapse due to gravity."

"Yes that's correct," Annabeth exclaimed in excitement after clapping her hands together. "The concept behind it is really not that difficult. It's similar to constructing a dome. There are really two major forces behind it, the gravita -" Then she saw Grover give me an eye roll and I simply shrug while suppressing a grin in response, Annabeth paused in mid sentence, looking at us with a flushed face. "Sorry. You're right, let's get going."

"So what are we doing now?" Grover asked as we walked. "I propose that we find a snack bar or a food court!"

I had to used all my self control to stop myself from palming my face. Another thing about Grover was that whenever anxiety kicked in, he would began to stress eat. Usually he would carry around some tin cans in his bag to binge on for crisis such as journey to the land of the dead, but in such a populated area, chewing on non edible food by mortals' standards would draw some questioning looks. I did wonder, how and what would the Mist show the mortals if Grover were to do so. "No G-man, we are not here for food. You already ate in the train, again," I chided him and he gave an "aww" sound. "Since we're here, you guys are going to the top of the arch."

Looking at me confusingly at my proposition, Annabeth asked, "What about you? You're not coming?"

"Naw, I'm scared of heights," I lied to them with a straight face. "That being said, you guys stay safe, alright? We will meet here in thirty minutes."

"Alright, sounds good," Annabeth nodded, though she failed to conceal the excitement that was currently radiating brightly from her eyes. It was only a natural response from her, and it reminded me a lot about the Annabeth that I knew from the other timeline, so I simply smiled warmly back at her.

"Ah, one last thing," I spoke up, turning my attention to Grover. "Do you smell anything funny, Grover? Like any monsters nearby?"

At my question, Grover frowned and wrinkled his nose, attempting to sniff out any danger with that unique ability of all satyrs. After a brief moment, he shook his head and said, "No. I don't sense anything nearby." I nodded my head and waved them on to the ticket booth.

It was like I thought, Grover failed to detect the presence of Echidna and Chimera like last time. I didn't know what magic the mother of all monsters used to conceal herself, blending her scent in with that of mortals. That being said, as of now, there were two possibilities. First, which was the favorable of the two, was that due to my previous actions, the timeline had been shifted, meaning that Echidna would not be appearing before us today.

The second possibility was that the monstrosity was still lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Since the presence of the mysterious stalker could still be felt, I was leaning more towards the latter scenario, though that was only an assumption considering the fact that Echidna might not even be the one observing us this entire time. It was a logical assumption, but nonetheless, a speculation based on past experiences and to make sure everyone on this quest came back in one piece, it was better to be safe than sorry.

This was also the only reason why I decided to lie to Annabeth about being acrophobic. My main objective here was simple: Find Echidna and her pet chihuahua then hopefully send them back to Tartarus in a clean and decisive manner like how I handled Medusa. I definitely did not want to endanger any of the bystanders if possible, unless Echidna allowed her fire breathing pet to go on a rampage, then that would be quite problematic.

Either way, I had thirty minutes to figure out if the monsters were here, defeat them, and make it back to the rendezvous point. If they really were here, then it wouldn't take long for me to locate them. Or should I say, it wouldn't take long for them to locate me.

Our previous encounter was her actively seeking me out and then isolating me on the observation deck. The end result was flew exploding cars flying out and me, with a poisoned calf, jumping into the lake. Yeah, it wasn't pretty.

If I remembered correctly, she claimed that she was sent by Zeus, so it was likely that she could be on the same mission. This did make things a bit easier for me. All I had to do was wander around aimlessly and hope that I would bump into a fat old lady with an ugly looking chihuahua. Seriously, it was mind boggling that a dog could look so hideous, I mean, weren't they supposed to be friendly and adorable?

So the question was, where should I head to now? Should I stay here and wait since my scent alone would act as a beacon to attract Echidna or should I also do some sightseeing myself? Knowing my ADHD, there was no way that I could wait patiently for who knows how long at the same place doing nothing, before getting taken over by my personal worst enemy: boredom. So I opted for the second option and began to walk around.

A part of me did wonder what Annabeth was doing right now. My guess was that she would be giving historical and architectural lectures to Grover while the latter would simply nod dismissively and occasionally let out a yawn.

A bitter smile involuntarily escaped as I thought about the daughter of Athena. We had been through so much together, yet in the end everything was for naught because I wasn't strong enough to protect her. Now, I was left with old memories with her and us in the previous timeline, but she possessed nothing of me or with me. I could only reminisce about the past alone, no longer able to share it with the person I once truly appreciated and loved. It did make me wonder, was it better for me to forget everything about her or preserve every little moment in my heart? The feeling of her not knowing anything about what we had gone through and me trying my hardest to hold onto them did tear me up a bit, but those memories were too beautiful and precious to let go. They served as a reminder for me that in order to recreate those moments, I would have to protect her and eliminate any threats before they had a chance to destroy our future.

"What is so funny dear?" A voice spoke up, drawing me out of my thoughts. Immediately, I slowly turned and saw the two figures that I wanted to see most. Standing before me was a familiar looking lady with a hungry looking chihuahua that looked as if he wanted to bite my head off. With the power of the Mist, Echidna appeared to be an extremely fat lady wearing a denim dress while Chimera looked like, well, a mean looking chihuahua to all mortals. Once you unravel the "myth", or in other words learn the true identity of the monster, then the Mist would lose its concealing effect. To me, all I saw was a face of a women with scaly skins like that of reptiles and a torso of a serpent.

Unfortunately even in this timeline, Echidna and her Chimera still chose to appear in St. Louis and were obviously not here to have an afternoon tea. Regaining my composure, "Ah it's nothing. By the way, nice chihuahua you got there."

At my comment, the Chimera glared murderously at me and let out a low growling sound. "Now, now sunny boy," Echidna cooed at her son, scratching his head gently. Surprisingly, that worked like magic, though it didn't stop him from giving me death glares. "You just have to wait for a little longer. I just have to talk to him for a bit."

"And what business do you have with me?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. "Do I even know you?"

"Oh no, where are my manners," the monster before me spoke up sweetly, studying me with those slitted reptilian eyes of her amusingly. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Echidna, the mother of all monsters, and this is my son, Chimera, not chihuahua." She frowned slightly at the last part before continuing, "He really doesn't appreciate it when people compare him to a weak and puny animal that you mortals keep as pets."

"Are you sure? He really looks like a chihuahua though," feigning my ignorance, I brought up the misconception again. At my statement, the Chimera growled dangerously at me in response.

Giving me a sigh and ignoring her son's displeased, she continued, "You should be careful with your words, young demi -"

"Yeah, I get that a lot, but carry on."

"Ahem, as I was saying, I was sent here by Lord of the Sky himself," she told me. "He didn't give me specific instructions, so I'm guessing I'm free to do whatever I want."

The growling sound began to increase, loud enough to rumble the hanging decorations on the walls. Glaring at me with wild eyes and panting with uneven breath, a noticeable pile of saliva could be found right where he was standing. Giving out a sigh of evaporation, she told her son, "Well, I'm done talking to him. You are free to do whatever you want now. Try not to make a mess, I don't want to be responsible for the clean up duty."

Try not to make a mess? Yeah… good luck telling your rabid and fire breathing son that. That was as if asking a baby not to cry - not going to happen. And since when did you care about cleaning up the aftermath?

Well, things were pretty much going as I expected with one exception. I didn't think she would straight up launch an assault in the midst of hundreds of mortals. But then again, the sheer amount of chaos and the possibility of having countless bystanders killed or traumatized were something that she never bothered. To them monsters, mortals were merely insects that didn't deserve to be breathing the same air and living in the same place as them. The superiority complex that they possessed were a driving factor for their ruthlessness when it came down to human lives.

As faint glows were emitting from the Chimera during his transformation, some onlookers were glancing in our direction curiously, and once he revealed his true form, a lion head, goat body, a blood-caked mane, and a ten - foot long diamondback snake-headed tail, those curious tourists began screaming their heads off, running away in fear. Even though the Mist was able to distort the reality, it wasn't able to obscure the entire truth. Humans, by nature, were a creative species, so with fragments of information that escaped the magic veil, they were able to piece together an image, an image that could reflect their very own worst nightmare. What I could guarantee was that they no longer see a fearsome chihuahua but something much worse and much more dangerous.

Biting back a curse when I saw some mortals freeze in fear at the site of the Chimera, I used the shortest amount of time and conjured blobs of water, using it as a temporary shield to bubble them in. The water itself was hardened and strengthened to the maximum, though it wouldn't be able to withstand any full on attacks, it would at least be strong enough to block off splash damage. That was completely fine, since their objective was me all along.

"RUN!" I yelled. Even without my reminder, everyone was already scattering around like chickens with their heads chopped off. The ones who were previously frozen in shock returned back to reality, but was now wondering why there was a layer of water around them. Seeing their confusion, I easily dismissed the bubble, allowing them to flee. Top priority now was to clear out the mortals, so I wouldn't have to split my attention later on to ensure their safety. Guess my plan of eliminating Echidna and Chimera discreetly was foiled.

Reaching into my pocket and fishing out Riptide, I uncapped the Celestial Bronze sword, positioning it in a defensive manner. Upon seeing my sword, Chimera flinched slightly when he realized that the substance was his weakness, but shook off the fear by roaring back at me.

Chimera was an extremely problematic monster to take on alone. As a mythical creature, he possessed great strength that could easily send me flying through walls with one swipe. Not only that, I had to look out for his flaming breath and that poisonous tail of his. Like I said, a formidable foe all around. To make matters worse, Echidna could always choose to join in the fight at any moment, striking me at the most unexpected time. This would be the first true test of my ability at accessing the flow of a battle, and a testament to all the trainings I had done thus far.

And so it began.

The monster opened its mouth and spewed out columns of fire in my direction, attempting to barbeque me before I could even launch a counter attack. "Did you just roast him?" Echidna muttered to herself when she realized that the spot I was standing was nothing more than a pile of molten rocks. "Tsk, I didn't think it would be so easy. Why did Zeus even bother -"

If she wasted even half a second more to finish that sentence, my sword would've pierced through her like it did to Medusa. The moment when I saw the Chimera opened his mouth, I already anticipated what was to come. If I were to play his game of only using long range attacks, then I would lose miserably since my water power was not as potent as his attacks. However, his large size, though intimidating, was also his weakness. My advantage here was my agility and my own other abilities.

Echidna was only sent here to test me under Zeus' order, but she had no idea what I was capable of. Now that I thought about it, if not for the lake near the arch, I would be dead by the poison. Wasn't this supposed to be a test? Or was that just an excuse for killing me, similar to what they did to Thalia? In hindsight, this was a calculated move, and I doubt he came up with it on his own. My guess was that Athena was probably the mastermind behind all this. If Echidna managed to kill me, then the Great Prophecy would be postponed, or in fact, never happen if no more children of the Big Three were found. Sure, Poseidon might get angry, but he would never know that Zeus was the one who sent Echidna as long as the latter swore on the Styx to never mention it. However, if I did manage to survive or against all odds defeat the monster, then not only would I be doing a favor for the Olympians by eliminating one of the most fearsome monster walking on this planet, but they would also be able to assess my true strength. The only downside was that they would have to appease me for attempted murder, but knowing how pompous the gods were, they either thought that I wouldn't dare question them or simply thought that the Echidna would kill me. Essentially speaking, this was killing two birds with one stone.

But if Zeus really wanted to kill me, then I would have to apologize in advance for desiring the impossibility.

I was already gone by the time the flame was in the proximity of burning me. Using the brightness of the flame as the perfect cover, I disappeared from their sights. The thought of flanking behind the Chimera and cutting off that troublesome snake-headed tail did cross my mind, but I decided against that plan and went after Echidna. Countless battles were won due to one side taking advantage of the element of surprise. By doing so, it forced your opponents to play reactively, and that was exactly what I was aiming for.

Unfortunately, Echidna was also an experienced fighter and was able to escape her death. That being said, it didn't mean that she dodged my strike completely as I noticed a long slash from her right shoulder to elbow.

"Oh? I see you're a cunning one." There was no longer any lingering sweetness or amusement in her voice. It was calm, serious, and next thing you know, she was ready to kill.

But so am I.

Ignoring her comment, I stepped into her guard and flicked my sword upwards directly at her chest. Narrowing her slitted eyes into almost a thin line, she slithered backwards while taking out a pair of hunting knives. Not going to lie, for someone with snake like features beneath the waist, she sure could move quite swiftly.

The benefit of taking the fight up close to Echidna was that this would ensure my safety against any long range area of effect attacks from the Chimera. The downside was that, she was a really skilled fighter. Even with the wound that my sword inflicted, she was still able to put up a decent defense, dodging and parrying my attacks. Nonetheless, I could feel the weakening in power behind her right arm, so as long as I drag out the fight, I would end up being victorious.

Again and again, I would twirl my blade in my hand and point the tip at her eyes, heart, throat, or stomach. And again and again, she would parry my strike and slither backwards. By my tenth attempt of killing her, I realized that we had walked in a full circle and we were back at where we had started. The Chimera only growled in frustration as he understood the risk of joining in the fight, so all he could do was watch anxiously, hoping that her mother would turn the tide around.

"For a demigod," Echidna said in between my attacks, and I noticed the unevenness in her breathing. "I'll give you props for fighting this well. You have exceeded my expectations."

I remained in silence, not wanting my attention to split up for a single second. Victory was in my grasp, so long as I kept up my pressure. But this was also when all things crumbled, where she saw an opportunity to strike.

"Percy!" A voice that resembled Annabeth screamed across the room. Taking a glance off to the side, I could see two figures running towards me. Dammit, what were they doing here instead of getting evacuated like others?

Knowing how desperate her current situation was, Echidna smirked at me and changed up her strategy, an effective strategy that I despised the most.

Instead of parrying my sword like she had been doing, she lunged backwards and threw her knives at me, forcing me to dodge to the side. It was at this moment where the Chimera launched forward, not at me, but at the duo that just arrived at the scene. At the same time, Echidna conjured a pair of throwing knives and hurled them at me with incredible speed and accuracy.

"ANNABETH WATCH OUT!" I screamed and charged at them, simultaneously deflecting the knives that were threw at me. The moment she saw that she missed her target, another pair of knives shimmered into existence and were on their way to pierce me. Again, I deflected them, but more came like those pesky little flies that wouldn't leave you alone.

When Annabeth realized what was coming, both Grover and her scattered and went the opposite directions. Since Grover was a bit slower at reacting, the impact behind the Chimera's landing consisted enough force to unbalance him, knocking him to his feet. As for Annabeth, it wasn't any better. Luckily, that dangerous tail of his didn't bite her, only swept her off of her feet. There was no way I could be at two places at once and to make things worse, Echidna was still firing her knives at me.

In this nick of time, I gathered enough power to summon a jet of water to push Grover out of harm's way, while sprinting towards Annabeth. It was also at this moment when I felt one of the throwing knives hit its mark, digging deep into my shoulder. I took a deep breath, trying to shake off the pain and continued making my way to Annabeth, who was attempting to get back up.

When the Chimera whirled around and spotted me, he growled loudly and opened his mouth. That moment, I knew there was only one thing I could do. I wasn't going to lose her anymore, and definitely not this early on. Reactively, I lunged at Annabeth, covered her with my body, and called upon a thick layer of water to shield us.

A sudden burst of pain and agony surged through my body as if I was tossed into the forge of Hephaestus. If not for my natural heat resistance that all sons of Poseidon carried along with the shield of water that I created, I was certain that I would designigrate on the spot.

"I think that's enough, son," Echidna spoke up with her sweet voice again and Chimera whimpered in response. "Percy Jackson, you're an interesting person. Good luck on your quest. I'm sure we will see each other soon." With a simple goodbye, both of them dissolved into the shadows and left the place.

"Yeah, no," I muttered under my breath. "I don't think I will want to see you ever again." Without me knowing, a sigh of relief escaped when I realized aside from a traumatized look, Annabeth was unharmed among the chaos when I unwrapped myself from her.

For the longest time, she only stared at me and when she finally opened up her mouth, the only thing she asked was, "Why?"

I gave her a playful smile and responded in the smoothest way. "Because you're my friend, stupid."

Apparently, my remark was able to fully restore her back to her previous self. "I see," she nodded appreciatively. "But you know Seaweed Brain, you're pretty dumb and reckless for sacrificing yourself like this." Even though she was teasing me, I could see a small smile forming at the edge of her lips.

"Yeah, my bad," I raised both of my hands and winced when I felt my movement ripped the already blistered skin open. "I guess I should've let the Chimera barbeque you."

Noticing my change in facial expression, she frowned and looked at my back. "We gotta get you treated. Maybe Grover knows some woodland magic that can help? Let me go get him."

"No need," I told her. "I'll go for a swim in that lake later then I'll be as good as new." Confused by my statement, I gave her a reassuring smile before continuing. "Speaking of which, where is Grover?"

The blast of my water shouldn't be strong enough to send him flying out of the place, so he should be somewhere closeby.

"Hey guys, there's a small problem over here," as if on cue, Grover called out to us from the hallway. Just when in Hades did he make it over there?

With Annabeth's help, I limped over to the waiting satyr who initially gave me a thumbs up, but after seeing the condition I was in, his expression became that of worried and self loathing. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I told him. "Listen, don't blame yourself alright? Tell us what the problem is?"

Behind him, a girl around our age appeared, and I nearly fainted when I realized who that was. It was the same familiar looking frizzy red hair, freckled face, and green eyes. Even though she appeared to be younger than the first time we met in the other timeline, there was no mistake that it was her. I mean, name someone you know that liked to wear oversized t-shirts with holes in her jeans and different colors of paint marks all over her attire and face.

This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to meet her in two more years, but then again, I shouldn't be surprised by this. Things were already changing around me, so naturally, the timeline being shifted forward was within the realm of possibilities.

"Hi," the girl in front of us waved shyly and I braced myself for what was coming next. "My name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Can you explain to me what that scary looking giant lion with goat body and snake as a tail was doing here?"


	6. The Fifth Night

**Author's Notes:**

 _Hey guys, here's a new chapter. Originally, I planned on updating a week after my last chapter, but obviously, that didn't happen. Before I start talking about this chapter, I have an announcement to make. Some people are asking me about pairings, and well, I haven't decided that yet. When I first started writing, I didn't plan on making a pairing, but as I continued, I was leaning towards Percy x Annabeth, but in a more platonic friendship. However, I'm going to let you guys decide that for me! I opened up a poll, so please let me know what you want, and I'll go with the majority._

 _Alright, let's talk a bit about this chapter. Not going to lie, this chapter was quite difficult to write. Why? Because I'm trying to bridge the scenes together and lay down some groundwork for future chapters. That being said, this chapter is basically info dump and not much action, so sorry to disappoint if you're expecting a fight against Ares, etc. With my rough estimate, it will probably take one or two more chapters for this arc to complete. Plan is to have an interlude between arc one and arc two, in other words, it will be completely original. Heck, as the story continues onward, it will diverge more and more from the canon. Another thing is the OOC that I'm sure you guys noticed already. Things such as "Why does Annabeth seem to incompetent?" will be answered later. If you have any suggestions or thoughts on this story so far, please let me know in the review! I'm not sure if you guys like the direction of the story, but as always, thanks for reading!_

*Story starts

Gabe was my stepfather, and if this was a fairy tale, then my mother was the Cinderella, likewise, Gabe was the evil stepmother. He was the definition of a stuck up, disgusting man that Artemis would not hesitate killing if she ever learned what he did to us. The word abusement would be an understatement when describing his actions. When something went horribly wrong, he would hit my mother out of anger and frustration. When the food was not cooked properly to suit his taste, he would throw the plate off the table and spat the food at her. Hm, didn't know that pigs were picky about what they eat.

But after all this time, my mother never complained and accepted all the abuse not because she enjoyed it, but to protect me. The scent of the Big Three was incredibly strong and according to Grover, if not for Gabe's foul smell as a filthy human, a sea of monsters would already be swarming me. So long as my mother and I were living with him, then monsters would have a hard time pinpointing my whereabouts.

Either way, vomitous men like him are the reason why Artemis created the Hunters to take in every maiden that was abused and proudly execute the abuser in the most gruesome way. She would even go as far as to make sure Hades put them in the Fields of Punishment to experience everlasting tortures. Once, one of Hades' judges, Minos, decided to put a man that commited rape into Elysium out of pity considering how beat up he was when he came to the judgment pavilion. Needless to say, The Hunters were the one responsible for his missing limbs, ruptured throat, and deformed facial features, so when Artemis learned that the pig ended up in the underworld's paradise, she personally paid Hades a visit and strongly suggested him to override the decision. Her unorthodox methods that Thalia refused to tell me as she claimed that it was a secret among the Hunters somehow managed to make the stubborn Lord of the Dead to change his mind.

Supposedly, when my summer break began, my mom borrowed Gabe's Camaro and took me to the beach house that we used to go to when I was young. The time spent was merry and relaxing. Away from school, away from chaos, and away from smelly Gabe, but as we all know nothing lasted forever, especially the good. That was when the Minotaur showed up to crash the party and followed by flipping our car off the road. That was also when I was brought to this timeline, witnessing my mother being taken away by Hades for the second time.

After that, I managed to defeat the monster unleashed by Hades and dragged Grover pass the boundary line of the camp, but that didn't mean the story ended here. Well, to say that Gabe was pissed off about his destroyed Camaro was an understatement. He reported the incident to the police and proceeded to defame me, spewing things like I had violent behaviors and was a threat to the happy family. I snorted when I thought about how delusional the guy could be.

Ever since his report, I had become the top story on every major newspaper and apparently became a wanted figure. And this was the reason why I had quite a sour expression on my face.

Mist was a powerful veil that could hide mysteries from mortals, however, it wasn't all that perfect. Some mortals were able to "see" more than what the average population could. Funny thing about mortals was that they could always find a way to twist the reality in order to explain something that they failed to understand. For instance, some said that the explosions at the St. Louis arc was an act of aliens trying to take over the Earth while others claimed that an adolescent child called Percy Jackson was the one responsible.

I mean, it wasn't too far from the truth, but hey, I didn't have fire powers that could melt structures, nor did I possess the strength to break eight layers of concrete. So saying that I was responsible was not fair. I was sure that if the Three Fates and Chronos were present, they would be laughing their assess off at my expression after learning how mortals managed to twist the truth by an enormous margin.

"Umm before you go over what happened earlier, can you explain to me first why you are immersing yourself in the water? Shouldn't you be going to the doctor?" Rachel asked from the side. "By the way, that water looks really filthy, are you sure you didn't hit your head from earlier?"

Both Grover and Annabeth were also staring at me in wonder, but I ignored all of their curious glances. Once we successfully escaped the cameras and reporters, we headed straight for the nearby lake that I plunged in years ago thanks to Chimera's poison. Oddly, Rachel followed us and I decided against asking her if she should be returning to her parents. After witnessing the entire fight, I couldn't just leave her without telling her about the supernatural world. Besides, as the future oracle, Rachel might be able to provide me with useful information down the road.

Annabeth offered to pull the knife out of my shoulder earlier but I declined. Reason being that it served as a temporary blood stopper, but now that I was in the lake, I mentally prepared myself as I closed my eyes and yanked the knife out of me. The previously clotted wound was now reopened, resulting in blood gushing out, instantly tainted the water around me into the color pink.

Slowly, I could feel the wound closing up again and the burning sensation from my back was also cooling down. Numerous gasps were heard from where Annabeth, Grover, and Rachel were standing as they saw the phenomenon of water healing me in less than a minute.

Once I felt that my body was completely recovered, I stood up and they gaped at me again when they noticed that I was completely dry. Ah yes, a perk from being a child of the sea god: unless I allowed the water to drench my clothes, it would always stay dry under water.

"To answer your question," I spoke up, giving a lazy stretch. "No, I don't think the doctors will be able to cure me this fast." I chuckled a bit and continued, "And before I explain anything else, please close your mouths."

When they realized what they had been doing, they immediately shook their heads and lifted their jaws back up.

"So Rachel," I began, eyeing the mortal girl we just met carefully. "How much of Greek Mythology do you know?" Of course I knew what she was going to say, but I had to guide her to the conclusion I was seeking.

"If you're referring to Zeus, Poseidon, then yeah I read over some stories about them." At the mention of the Lord of the Sky's name, the sky rumbled softly, and I involuntarily glanced up. Scrunching her brows in confusion, she asked, "What was that? Thunder when the sky is clear?"

"That was the King of gods himself," I stated simply and she tilted her head, appearing to be more confused as the conversation went on. "What I'm saying is that the so called myths are all real. Annabeth and I are demigods and Grover here is a satyr." At the mention of their names, the former gave Rachel a nod while the latter gave her a wave.

"Wait a minute…" Rachel muttered to herself, resting her chin on her fist. After a brief moment, she shot up with widened eyes. "You're telling me that this is all real? I knew it... those dreams were too real to be fake…"

"What dreams?" Annabeth learned forward and asked with narrowed eyes. Oh boy, let's pray to all gods that these two won't start bickering at each other. For some reason, Annabeth would always try to start a fight with Rachel, whether it was about something she said or did, at any given chance. In response, the Rachel would try her best to ignore those condescending and snarky comments that were thrown at her, though at times, she would also show that she was not here to be mess around. The feud between the daughter of Athena and the Oracle lasted for a good amount of the time until Annabeth and I started dating. To this date, I still had no clue what happened, but the most bizarre thing was that ever since Annabeth became my girlfriend, her attitude towards the redhead took a 180 degrees swing and somehow became her best friend. Weird, huh.

"Well, it's rather complicated," Rachel frowned and said. "I'm not sure if you will believe me."

"It's alright to tell us," Grover reassured her. "We will do anything we can to help." Both Annabeth and I nodded in agreement.

"It all started couple months ago," Rachel began with hesitation. "I began having dreams about thunder and rain. At first I thought they were just nightmares, but…"

"But?" Annabeth prompted her as her eyes began to narrow.

"But it didn't stop. In fact, it became much worse," Rachel confessed. "To the point where I could hear evil laughter and something about demigods and Zeus going to end the world if the stolen object isn't returned."

Here, Annabeth had to cover up her mouth to prevent a gasp from escaping and as for Grover, he dropped the tin can he was chewing on the floor with shock. Seeing how those two were incapable of formulating words right now, I spoke up. "Is there anything else?"

Rachel shook her head and sighed though she did look a bit more relaxed now that she got that off of her chest. "Alright listen up Rachel," I said slowly, contemplating as to how I should word myself. "We don't have much time because as you know, the Lord of the Sky lost something valuable to him, and we're on a quest to retrieve that missing object."

"Percy!" Annabeth glared at me and said. "How can you tell a mortal about this? Do you know the consequence?"

"It's fine," I told her and turned my attention back to Rachel. "But for your own safety, please do not speak of this to anyone, got it?"

"So this is all real, isn't it?" Rachel said. "The Olympians and the demigods...they are all real?"

"Yes," I said. "And what you saw earlier was the Echidna and her evil sidek-, erm, I mean her son."

"Wow, this sounds really dangerous but fun," Rachel exclaimed excitingly. "Can I-"

Before she could finish, I interrupted her, "No, you can't come with us. Like you said, it's very dangerous."

"But-"

"How about this, if we somehow meet again, I'll fill you in more on all this."

"Deal?" The gloomy expression that Rachel had previously was now wiped away with excitement yet again.

I smiled and nodded at her, "Yes, it's a deal."

"But how are you getting around?" Rachel asked. "I don't think you're old enough to drive."

"Right… about that…" I frowned and trailed off as I thought about the biggest challenge we have right now.

*Scene Break

"Well, that was certainly quite convenient," Annabeth muttered to herself after we watched the car drive off in the distance. "Never thought it would be like this."

"Yup," Grover nodded his head. "If we make it out alive, we should thank her."

"I'm sure we will see each other soon," I told them half heartedly then knitted my brows as I thought about the current situation. Something was off, and I didn't like it at all. Wasn't Hades' helm of darkness stolen by Luke and in Ares' possession right now? If so, where were the Furies? Unless in this timeline it wasn't stolen at all?

There was another thing. Apparently, the mysterious stalker that was following us wasn't the Echidna since I was still able to detect its presence. How frustrating…

On the bright side, we had successfully secured our transportation all the way to L.A, courtesy to Rachel Elizabeth Dare. After learning about our quest and the lack of transportation to travel across the country, the red haired girl decided to help us out. Annabeth, Grover, and I were extremely skeptical about her statement and initially declined the offer. I mean, how was she going to it? But then again, this was Rachel, who surprised me multiple occasions in the previous timeline, so hey, maybe that remained constant and that she had a trick up her sleeves.

Oh boy, I was right about that. Apparently Rachel had developed that cunning and sly personality of hers before I met her. When she brought us to her guardian, she told him that we were her classmates who were in need of help of getting to California. When asked why, she immediately responded for us, saying that we got lost on a school trip.

Naturally, there were a lot of holes in her reasoning, but in her defense, she was only twelve. Due to the status as a driver/guardian for the young and single child of the Dare family, he only lifted his brows in surprise then called his superior.

As a wealthy businessman, Mr. Dare didn't have time in his hands to deal with her daughter's request, so instead of flat out denying it, he made a deal with her, in which he would help Rachel's friend as long as she stopped blasting her weird music at night.

Maybe Rachel already knew that her demands could be delivered as long as she opens her mouth. Maybe to others, that sounded terrific, but that wasn't what she wanted. Like any other twelve year old, she wanted attention from her parents, but with all the board meetings and client's constant demands, Mr. Dare never really had time to spend with her daughter. To compensate, he would lavish Rachel, thinking that money could solve all problems in this world.

I wish…

What he didn't understand that, wealth may play a role in the level of happiness, but there were a lot of other things that people value over money. In this case, it would be parental love.

In the previous timeline, she told me about her family problems and was grateful that I introduced her into the mythical world. That time, I only stared at her weirdly, thinking to myself who would want to be involved in a world full of chaos. Perhaps, I was slowly beginning to understand her reasons.

Well, thanks to Mr. Dare's generosity and Rachel's honorable sacrifice, we got ourselves enough travel expense to reach our destination. They did offer to buy us plane tickets, but I shook my head violently at that proposal. Me, a son of Poseidon, traveling in Zeus' domain was as suicidal as fighting Ladon alone. Annabeth and Grover looked at me quizzically, but soon caught on and elected to transport by train and buses.

"I'm not sure if we will be seeing her again," Annabeth pointed at herself and Grover with a smirk. "But I know for sure that YOU will be seeing her again." Right, before Rachel departed with her driver, she gave me her phone number and asked me to call her should we have time to hang out in the future.

"... What are you trying to say here?" I sighed and asked Annabeth.

Increasing the size of her smirk, she responded, "Oh it's nothing Seaweed Brain. Or should I call you Rock Head instead?" Grover was trying very hard not to break out in laughters, but in the end, he failed and began laughing hysterically. When I glared at Annabeth, she merely shrugged and continued on, "Either way, let's get going. I hope the dining cart has good food."

*Scene Break*

Everything went by peacefully as the train continued onwards to our destination. Both Annabeth and Grover were exhausted from earlier encounter at St. Louis Arch, while I was also feeling a bit fatigue. Deciding to take a short nap to replenish my energy, I kicked off my shoes and curled up on my seat. Since Mr. Dare had bought us our tickets, he also ensured that we got the most comfortable seats, thus explaining the spacious area and marshmallow like seats.

As per usual, the moment I fell asleep, I began dreaming.

 _The surroundings were quite dark making it somewhat difficult for me to pinpoint my whereabout. One advantage of demigods was that we were able to wander freely in our dreams, giving us the freedom to explore and gathering as much information as we desired. Thus, my curiosity prompted me to journey further down the dark abyss. One might say that my action was impulsive and borderline stupid, but hey, unless it's caused by Morpheus himself, I don't think anyone can die in their dreams._

 _Chattering sounds and metal clashing noises gradually grew as I made my way down the hallway. Once I reached the end, a wave of hot and dry heat collided with me, and I had to blink a few times to adjust my pupils to the new surroundings that I had found myself in._

 _Though the scenery before me wasn't as impressive and traumatizing as that of Tartarus, the sheer amount of monsters forging new weapons and the dry atmosphere in this cramped area still made me feel quite overwhelmed. As I made my way through the groups of Teklines, my overwhelming feeling was further developed into astonishment when I realized how far Luke had carried out Kronos' will, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried. There was no way that the opposing side was THIS far ahead of us in terms of preparations, right? They didn't need to wait for another year, no, not even a day. With their current strength, if they were to storm Camp Half-Blood at this moment, the demigods would stand no chance. Strategically speaking, Luke and Kronos held all the advantages in this war. Not only did he have superior numbers, but also possessed superior intel, including strengths and weaknesses of the camp's defense, on our side. If I were in his position, I would gather all the scattered monsters across the country and issue an attack within days since surprise attack was a common military tactic. So the question now is why? Why was Luke not pulling the trigger?_

 _As I slowly walked through the crowd while coming up with some logical explanations behind Luke's actions, I found myself stopping in front of a closed door that said "Do Not Enter." Naturally, my rebellious nature along with my dyslexia read that as "Please Enter!", so I diffused through the door, determined to find out what secrets were being held in this room._

" _But my Lord," a voice pleaded desperately. "Now is the perfect time! There's no opportunity better than right now!" The room itself was completely dark with an exception of golden light emitting from the far side of the room. As I traced my sight to the source of the brightness, it was then that I was able to spot the figure that was talking._

" _Silence, you fool," an ancient voice bellowed with authority and power. "We don't have enough intel to proceed with our operations. There is only one chance for me, and if I don't succeed, then I'll have to wait for another millennia."_

" _B-But think about it, that blasted camp is in utter chaos now, with each of them taking sides and fighting against each other! If we attack right now, then it's going to be a guarantee victory!"_

" _Then what? Have you considered all possibilities?"_

" _What do you mean?" the figure asked quizzically._

" _Did you forget about the other camp that I told you about?" the voice pointed out and a low but soft gasp could be heard from the figure. "Do you think they will sit idly?"_

" _If their past rivalry is being factored in, then perhaps?"_

 _A momentary silence dawn upon the room, and I thought that the figure had successfully convinced the mysterious voice. "Seems like you're still too naive …" the voice spoke up again with great disappointment. "If you can't see the reasons yourself, then don't even think about leading the army."_

" _But my Lord -" The previous confidence that the figure once held was now gone, only to be replaced by a sense of dread and panic._

" _Do you need me to remind your carelessness? Do you need me to remind you how you failed your undercover mission, and the only mission that I gave you?" The figure whimpered a bit as the voice pressed onwards. " What was his name again? Perseus Jackson? My son's brat if I recalled correctly." This was where all my suspicions were confirmed. Before my frameless body was Luke and a part of Kronos' essence. Even to this date, I was still unable to fathom how a part of Kronos' essence was able to escape from Tartarus let alone grow under the nose of the Olympians. Was it once again due to the pride and ego from the gods? Or was the Titan Lord so powerful that he was able to revive himself from the pit of forever darkness._

" _Yes, my Lord," Luke grimaced and nodded. "Somehow that kid was able to see through our plans even though I mentioned nothing about it previously. He even knows about you."_

" _Ah yes…" Kronos hummed a bit in contemplation before continuing. "That is quite interesting indeed, but that doesn't excuse your negligence on this matter!"_

" _I-I'm extremely sorry my Lord, please forgive me," Luke kneeled on the ground and bowed his head to the ground with a shaken voice. "I promise you I won't fail you again."_

" _Since this is your first offense, I will forgive you just this once," Kronos said. "But if you fail again… you know what will happen." Before Luke could say his thanks, Kronos muttered quietly, "I wonder what we should do with the boy…"_

" _Should I assassinate him, my Lord?" Luke suggested and I smirked a bit at the thought. I mean, you can try, but don't be dumbfounded when you realize that the monsters you sent after me are all turned into golden dust. I wasn't even concerned about the callousness in Luke's words since it was a pure logical choice that strictly meant business from his end._

" _Are you kidding me?" Kronos scoffed at Luke, which the latter looked quite perplexed at the remark. "You didn't even have the guts to kill him when you first realized that he knows our plans, so what makes you think that you can do it this time?"_

 _Biting his lower lips in frustration and balling up his fists in resentment, the young son of Hermes remained in silence with a scowl planted on his face. There was nothing he could say to defend himself at Kronos' accusation. Luke indeed should've killed me back then, or at least try to, but he decided to bail, gambling his future of how the godly world should be with my words. He was nevertheless young and conflicted, thus clouding his thoughts and instilling reluctance in his actions._

" _Then what option should we take now?" Forcing himself to relax, he managed to unclench his jaw._

" _There are few options here," Kronos said and immediately I felt a chill and a wave of overwhelming power. "Why don't we ask him ourselves?"_

" _What do you mean?"_

 _Ignoring Luke, Kronos spoke up. "So Perseus Jackson, I'll give you an option to join forces with us, what do you say?"_

" _My Lord, he isn't here," Luke frowned and said._

" _Well," I began slowly, causing Luke to widen his eyes, jumping back with astonishment. "That's a nice proposal you got there, gramps."_

" _H-h-how..?" Luke stammered out in disbelief while attempting to locate my whereabouts._

 _Seeing his reaction, Kronos cut in, "Don't even bother. You won't be able to sense his presence, let alone see it." This entire time, Luke's jaw remained hanging as he was still unable to take in the reality. "He seems to be quite powerful as a demigod to be able to sneak in like this in his dreams. Nonetheless, answer me, Perseus."_

 _Letting out a small sigh, I began with a shrug. "My answer will depend on what I can gain. Give me a good reason for siding with you. "_

 _At my statement, Kronos boomed into laughter that rumbled the entire room. Luke had somewhat regained from his initial shock and had an anxious expression, meanwhile I kept a straight face, waiting patiently for Kronos to respond._

 _After what seemed like eternity, the laughter died down. "You dare negotiate with the Titan Lord?" Amusement was laced in his voice and I gave me a smile of my own. "Very well. If you join my army, then I'll spare your life."_

 _Scrunching my eyebrows, I began by stroking my chin slowly. "Hmm… very tempting offer, but I'm afraid that I'll have to decline."_

" _Oh? You think I'm joking?"_

" _Oh no," I said with a shrug. "I just don't think you can, that's the problem."_

 _With a raised brow, Luke crossed his arms and warned, "Percy, if I were you, I would accept the generous offer. Doing this will only get yourself killed."  
_

" _Thanks, but no thanks," I glanced at the son of Hermes before turning my full attention back to Kronos. "In your current state, there is no way you can defeat me."_

" _Are you testing your luck, Jackson?" Kronos growled. "Or you think you lived long enough?"_

" _Maybe a little bit of both?" I grinned playfully._

" _Then I'll let you taste a fraction of my power, if you wish to take a one way trip to Hades' realm this badly." The moment he finished his words, everything around me seemed to be frozen in place as if time itself had stopped. Luke remained still with his arms still crossed over his chest, staring intently into space. All the whacking and hacking sound from the weapon forging outside of the room was now gone, only to be replaced by dreadful silence. What didn't change was the glowing golden light that was still being emitted from the box on the table. To my surprise, the other thing that stayed in motion was me._

 _Kronos seemed to be sharing the same bewilderment as he spoke up, "How is it that you're not affected by my time spell?"_

" _Who knows," shrugging, I responded with a smirk. "But I did tell you that you can't hurt me."_

" _Nonsense!" Kronos bellowed in frustration before I felt a wave of golden energy shooting towards me. However, before it could even reach me, the power behind the attack dissipated into the universe, further enraging the Titan Lord._

" _You know," I said with a yawn, placing both arms behind my head in a relaxed position. "I can do this all day with you, gramps. I know Tartarus must be a boring place for you, so if you want, I can keep you entertained. But for now, I'll be taking my leave." Leaving behind Kronos' endless roars and Luke's frozen body, my dream shifted, causing the previous darkness to melt away._

 _Instantly, I knew this wasn't a demigod dream that foresaw the present or the future, but a dream about my past, the past that had been haunting me ever since I began a new life in this timeline._

 _In front of me was Frank, the chubby Canadian-Asian that I befriended at Camp Jupiter, and next to him was his girlfriend, Hazel. I couldn't make out what they were saying from a distance, but decided not to eavesdrop on them. Instead, I shifted my attention and took a quick note of my surroundings._

 _Rome. To be precise, this was the Little Timbers where Annabeth began her solo quest to recover the Athena Parthenos. The setting was so similar to how I remembered that for a brief moment, I thought I was reliving the past._

 _Almost…_

 _If my memory wasn't deemed as bad as Annabeth pronounced all the time, then Jason and Leo should be on the Argo II instead of hanging around not too far away from me with Piper. Speaking of the daughter of Aphrodite, wasn't she talking to her mother at this instance?_

 _No. This was not right. Something felt a bit off in this dream cycle. This was too good to be -_

 _A shriek went off in a distance and swiftly, I bolted to the source of the sound, only to find myself caught in an extremely bizarre situation. In front of me was Annabeth, slowly bleeding out on the ground as few earthborns stood victoriously few feet before her._

" _No...no...Annabeth….NOOO," I muttered to myself and charged forward. I knew it was a dream, but the throbbing pain in my heart whenever I thought about Annabeth's death was unbearable. It was futile, but I had to try saving her. I wanted these dreams to stop. I wanted all suffering from the past to be gone._

 _As if they didn't recognize my presence, the leader of the group, I presumed, walked up slowly to the helpless Annabeth, and as fast as lightning, a gaping hole was opened at her chest as the earthborn materialized a piece of sharp rock and pierced her with it. Blood gushed out uncontrollably, tainting the ground into a crimson red. I was too scared to move because I was in shock, too scared to call out her name because I didn't know what to do if she didn't respond, and once again, I had to witness the death of my wise girl._

 _A large rumbling sound momentarily distracted my thought and I realized my surroundings had changed again._

" _When I said get us out of here, I was expecting you to turn into a bear and smack everything out of your way, not turn into an eagle and fly away," a voice that resembled Leo said with disappointment._

" _I mean, if you don't like it, I can always drop you right now," Frank said while soaring through the air._

" _I just don't like it when you grab me by the neck of the shirt with your feet…" Leo mumbled under his breath. "Stupid Zhang."_

" _What was that?" Frank yelled out loudly as he tried to whirled around the oncoming arrows by twisting and turning in the air. However, this only amplified Leo's fear of free falling ten feet from the sky. "Dude, stop moving, or else I'll actually drop you by accident."_

" _It's not like I have a seatbelt to secure myself," Leo yelled back. "What am I supposed to do? I can't transform into an eagle like you!"_

" _Maybe you can help me by throwing some fireballs back at them?"_

" _You know what? That's a good point!" Leo agreed and began channeling his demigod power. Ever since Leo returned back from Ogygia with a non-flammable cloth provided by Calypso to wrap his firewood with, Frank had felt more at ease around the son of Hephaestus._

 _As a result, the duo was now providing air support for the demigods and the Olympians while simultaneously weaving through oncoming ground attacks from mountain giants that were throwing rocks at them. Instead of raining cats and dogs, it was now raining fire, scorching the ground with burning flames._

" _Here," Leo pointed downwards. "Drop me off next to my dad." Without any word, Frank dove down and did what Leo asked. "Thanks man," Leo gave him a thumbs up and waved. "I'll see you soon, hopefully."_

" _Yeah I hope so too," Frank agreed. "Even though I really don't want to."_

" _Now, now Zhang," Leo crossed his arms and chided. "That's not a very nice thing to say."_

" _I'm just joking man," Frank gave out a laugh as he took off into the sky. "I'm going to find my dad, good luck."_

 _Out of curiosity, I willed my body to glide behind Frank, interested to see what would happen next. After spotting Ares with his eagle vision, he tucked in his wings and dove down with incredible speed, transforming back to his human form the moment his feet touched the solid ground._

 _Next to the God of War was his daughter Clarisse, wielding her spear at such proficiency that calling her the best spear wielding demigod in this century wouldn't be an exaggeration at all. The way she whirled, stabbed, and block with her spear looked as if the weapon was her third arm. Pairing up with her fluid body movement, a combination of rolling to evade enemy attacks while swiping their bases with her spear and wild 360 twirls that made her look like a deadly spinning top, Clarisse was as terrifying as ever._

 _As soon as she pulled her spear out from a now dead hellhound, Clarisse nodded at Frank before continuing on with her rampage. When Ares saw Frank, he changed into his Roman form and beamed happily, "My boy, you're finally here. Ready to slay some monsters?"_

" _Of course," Frank replied with as much enthusiasm before transforming into a giant grizzly bear. While Clarisse utilized her spear in a precise and speedy manner, Frank took advantage of his size and strength to brute force through the enemy ranks. The rampage of two children of Ares continued onwards until they ran into an indestructible wall._

 _I knew exactly what was going to happen here, and I knew exactly who Clarisse and Frank ran into. I willed my dream self next to the son of Ares, trying to direct his attention towards me, but it was no use. No matter how hard I screamed, no matter how much I screamed, Frank never stopped in his tracks. He continued to charge and…_

"Percy...Percy… PERCY!" A feminine voice yelled out while shaking my body violently. "For crying out loud, are you going to wake up or what?"

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I blinked slowly and saw Annabeth's face with a worried expression within inches of mine. I had to use every ounce of my self control to stop myself from holding onto her and ask if she was really alive. A part of me was thankful that she dragged me out from my nightmare because the amount of emotion I had to process to relive the death of Frank would be too overwhelming.

"Erm… What's going on?" Forcing those thoughts out of my head, I blinked a couple more times to regain focus. After giving my legs a good stretch, I asked, "Is there a monster somewhere on the train?"

Before she could continue, Grover cut in to answer my query. "I don't know, but all of a sudden, everything became awfully silent… and something feels really odd. "

Annabeth nodded in agreement, "And the sky seemed to be darker." I scrunched my brows as I tried to access the situation. It seemed that Annabeth had exhausted all possible scenarios considering how she was staring at me expectantly.

Closing my eyes, I tried to concentrate on my surroundings, attempting to detect any form of malicious intent or foreign beings. Immediately adjacent to me, I could discern two different auras that resembled that of Annabeth and Grover. As I further stretched out my senses, I continued to block out the two strongest presences due to the close proximity and persisted on scanning.

Nothing...nothing at all. After a quick scan, I failed to detect any other beings other than the three of us. Due to the inherent weakness that full mortals possessed, it was actually more difficult to access their aura. On the contrary, demigods and other divinities or mythical creatures were much more potent. So long as they invoked a glimpse of their power, no the tiniest fraction was more than enough, I would be able to track them like a hunting dog tracks prey. It was the same principle as sharks; where a tiny drop of blood in the vast ocean would be enough to attract dozens of sharks that are miles away. The Hunters of Artemis also applied this concept, thus explaining their excellency at tracking down menacing monsters in matter of one or two days. While my tracking skill wasn't as proficient as that of experienced members of Hunt like Phoebe, mostly due to my lack of experience and the fact that this particular skill set wasn't required majority of the time, it was still sufficient at getting the job done.

So the fact that I wasn't able to detect any power means two things. It either meant that my tracking skill was still lacking and that Thalia would be making fun of me for gods know how long or …

"Um.. Percy, what are you doing?" Annabeth asked, giving me a perplexed look as I got up from my seat. Ignoring her, I slowly made my way to the exit of the compartment and carefully climbed up the ladder on the side. This was where I was thankful of the training I had in the past life because staying balanced on top of a moving train was no easy task. Taking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes once again. Instead of concentrating on my surroundings, this time I opted to focus on myself, my inner self, the demigod blood that coursed through my veins, the power that flow between all my muscle filaments, and the energy that stored in all my organs. All of them, every single drop of strength that resided in me, I flared them up to the maximum.

Whoever that was causing this phenomenon to occur was also good at erasing and masking their own power. What better way to attract power than power?

"Alright Percy," Annabeth yelled from below with Grover standing behind her, peeking out of the compartment curiously. "What are you doing? And what WAS that?" Alright, maybe I had overdone it and flared up too much unnecessary power. It was so potent that it might be able to attract all monsters within this proximity, but that was least of my concern, considering how we were on a moving train and that my power dissipated as fast and it appeared.

My goal was to draw out the power that had been lurking in the dark, in hopes of unveiling the cause behind this weirdness. It was like sending out an invitation; all I could do now was to wait for "it" to accept my challenge.

"I'll explain later!" I yelled back at her and plopped myself down on the roof of the cart.

Who knew if "it" will ever show up or how long it was going to take, so might as well make myself comfortable. So patiently, I closed my eyes and waited.

"Let's go back, Gro-, what in the gods name is going on?" mid-sentence, a gust of wind so strong that it formed a miniature tornado interrupted Annabeth's train of thought. Immediately, I was able to detect three divine presences in my close proximity, but I elected to remain still.

Without opening my eyes, I spoke up while masking my surprise, "How are you doing, Alecto?" Since the Furies failed to appear at the bus station, I had thought it to be unlikely that it was them, but it turns out I was incorrect in my assumption.

"Oh?" the leader of the Furies answered with amusement. "The boy seems to know us. How surprising."

"Yeah.. except he doesn't seem to know my name," one of them grumbled quietly.

"Ah, apologies," I said with a small smile. "Allow me to start over. How are you doing, Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone? I hope the Lord of the Underworld is doing well."

"I'm not sure about him doing well," Tisiphone on the left said dryly. "Especially some wet behind the ears demigod stole his symbol of power."

"Can't believe you have the time to ask for our well being when you're the one in deep trouble," Megaera said in disbelief.

"Maybe we should give him a quick death for being considerate?" Tisiphone suggested hopefully and next to her, Megaera bobbed her head up and down in agreement.

"As much as I would like that...No we can't…" Alecto sighed as she began, glaring daggers at me with hatred. For a brief moment, I was a bit confused to her hostility. Sure, I was the prime suspect for stealing your master's helm, but what was up with the enmity, especially since this was the first time we met each other -

Ah that explains it…

"So is it detention time, Mrs. Dodds?" I asked slyly with a smirk.

"Oh not this time," she gave me a sick grin and continued. "The person you're about to meet will make you prefer detention." During my year at Yancy Academy, Mrs. Dodds became a replacement for my previous math teacher, in the past it was unknown to me that she was a fury in disguise. It was until the field trip that took place mid semester that made me began questioning my own sanity, I mean, in what world does your math teacher transform into a demon and your Greek teacher toss you a ballpoint pen that could turn into a bronze sword. With some luck and heightened up senses involved, I was able to turn Mrs. Dodds, or Alecto, into a pile of golden dust. The act alone was certainly enough to build up her hatred against me and now that her essence and body reformed, she was coming at me with vengeance.

"Hmm… after giving it some thought, I think it will be great if you take us to see Hades," I rested my hand on my chin as I contemplated. "This way, you can save us some trouble of traveling all the way to L.A." A low rumbling sound emitted from below and Alecto glared at me while I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Um Percy…" Annabeth shifted uncomfortably. "You do know that names have power, and I don't think that was the brightest thing to do."

Grover bobbed his head up and down in agreement, "I think you just pissed them off."

"Did he just speak of our Lord's name with that filthy mouth of his?" Megaera pointed at me incredulously.

"I really really want to stab him right now," Tisiphone grumbled underneath her breathe while glancing sideways at Alecto. Seemingly knowing the frustration that was being built up by her fellow sisters, Alecto smiled wickedly, "You know what, I just remembered that I have another errand to run. I'll be back in ten minutes, so behave yourselves, my dear sisters." Tisiphone and Megaera looked at each other and grinned as Alecto vanished on the spot before slowly trudge towards us.

"T-T-This is not good," Annabeth stammered out as she took a step backwards. Grover began bleating nervously, likewise, stumbled backwards and nearly tripped on his own foot. "Blahhh, Percy what have you done!"

"Hmm?" I hummed in confusion and they also stared back dumbfounded. "They can't possibly hurt us. I mean, they are nice, peaceful Ol- SCATTER!" While I was talking to Annabeth and Grover, the two furies struck swiftly, forcing me to push my companions out of the way and draw out a shield of water to defend myself. Since the getgo, I never expected us to have a peaceful confrontation. My attempt at dissuading their advance also seemed to be futile, perhaps complimenting my enemy wasn't the right choice?

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled from couple feet away with her daggers drawn. "Are you hurt?"

While I would love to respond back to her and check on them, I was currently being pressured by two divine old ladies. The shield that I conjured earlier was able to deflect the talons that were aimed at my torso, buying me enough time to leap backwards and uncap Riptide. However, having a couple feet between the three of us didn't mean that I could let my guard down. Dealing with three of them at once might be troublesome, but that didn't mean it was impossible. The real problem here was fending off two ferocious old ladies while protecting Annabeth and Grover.

"Stay close to me," I told them without breaking my line of sight. "They're dangerous."

"We'll help," Annabeth spoke up behind me, unsheathing her dagger and taking a stance next to me.

"No," I snapped back at them as I lowered my central gravity and place Riptide in a comfortable position for counterattacks. "You're not ready for this yet."

"But -"

Whatever the daughter of Athena wanted to say was cut off when Megaera and Tisiphone flanked each of our sides. To my understanding, the order that the Furies received from Hades wasn't to kill us, but to capture and interrogate us about the missing Helm of Darkness. If they really wanted us dead, they had so many opportunities to assassinate us prior to our current encounter. No, what they were doing now was simply playing with their food to vent out their frustration and unfortunately for them, I was not someone to be toyed with easily.

"Now, now," A voice appeared. The Furies immediately halted their movements, and I breathed out a sigh of relief for avoiding an unnecessary fight before turning to thank the new comer. At least that was what I wanted to do.

I had hope that it was Hermes or Apollo who interrupted the crazy old ladies from harming us, but I couldn't help to show a slight disappointment when I recognized the person that was strolling his way over. Black jeans, combat boots, leather duster along with a large hunting knife strapped to the waist could only resemble one of the twelve Olympians I know. The sickening aura that he gave out left an everlasting reminder which I would never forget. Even now, the urge to pick a fight with him still coursed through my veins.

"Lord Ares," Megaera and Tisiphone exclaimed in surprise and bowed respectfully. "What brings you here?"

Taking off his sunglasses, the God of War waved dismissively at the Furies and began scrutinizing me with profound interest. "So this is old seaweed's brat?" he said with a smirk. I remained in silent and held my glare with him. "Not bad, not bad at all. Hey kid, you know who I am?"

It took a great amount of self-control to not spat out something like, "Yeah, you're the cocky and snobby god that got his ass whooped by me." Saying something like that would only foil my plan to bring Luke back, so after taking a deep breathe to calm myself, I responded respectfully with a bow, "Yes. You're Lord Ares, the God of War and one of the great twelve Olympians. What brings you here, m'lord?"

"I wish my kids are like this," Ares murmured quietly. "But to answer your question, little cousin, I'm here to help you on your little quest. Ya know, it's not everyday that the great God of War himself wants to help a mere demigod."

"Isn't that against the ancient rules?" I pointed that out and he waved at me dismissively.

"Yes yes, the ancient rule. So that's why you have to keep it between the two of us and not tell my father." He told me with a threatening glare, so I nodded and went along with him.

"Um do I have permission to ask something, Lord Ares," Annabeth squeaked, hiding half of her body behind me.

"Ask away!" Ares responded cheerfully after we seemingly accepted his condition of not mentioning anything about the ancient rules.

"Can I know the exact reason why you want to help us?" After seeing the hospitality that Ares was showing, Annabeth regained some confidence and asked without squeaking her voice.

"Well," Ares began with a booming laughter. "Normally, I don't interfere with these puny quests because those demigods don't deserve my godly presence. But someone here was interesting enough to catch my eyes." When he finished, he eyed me with great interest while stroking his chin slowly though Annabeth and Grover gave me a suspicious look. Since I had no idea what ridiculous conclusion Annabeth had came up with, I decided to ignore their glares for now. After seeing how I paid no attention to their questioning looks, Annabeth folded her arms and let out a small "hmph". Surely, she would be upset with me and bombard me with endless streams of questions afterwards, but I could always talk my way out, so I decided to divert my attention back to Ares' words.

This was the same trick that Ares pulled when we met him last time. When we lost our transportation and money after barely escaping from the Chimera's crazy pet, we were all beat up, exhausted, and wanted to sit down, relax, and have a nice meal. But without any money, that was merely a wish. This was when Ares came in.

Perhaps the gods really do listen to our pleas because at that moment, our wish was granted by the War God who rode in with his Harley. The meal, transportation, and traveling accessories that came after didn't come without a price though. In order to continue our journey, we had to complete a small favor for the god - fetch his shield from a nearby water park.

Long story short, we ended up completing the side quest and secured ourselves new clothes, backpacks full of cash and accessories, and most importantly, a ride that would take us straight to Las Vegas. Back then I didn't think too much about the generous gift and the suspicious intrusion of the god, but we also fell into Luke's trap because of my own naivety. I felt responsible for putting my friends and mom in danger, but thinking back about it now, I had to give it to Luke. It was a very well crafted plan, definitely not at Hermes' calibur yet, but even someone as bright and cautious like Annabeth didn't detect the animosity behind it.

In spite of altering the timeline slightly, there was still a high possibility that Ares appeared with a scheme in his mind. But the question now was, how exactly was I supposed to make him reveal his true intent? If the rippling effect that I induced from my previous actions was able to prevent Luke from contacting Ares, then bluntly accusing him right now would not only put a dent in our future relationships, but the wrath from being falsely accused of a crime that he didn't commit would also endanger myself and my companions. Ares was known as a hot headed and not-so-bright god where the only thing that was bright was his red Harley, so getting information out from him through vigilant manipulation of my words shouldn't be too difficult. That being said, his status as a millennia old god granted him countless experience at reading situations that might posed to be disadvantageous to him, so underestimating him would be a fool's act.

I contemplated for a brief moment before I spoke up, "Lord Ares, if you're referring to me, then I must say that you're mistaken." When I noticed that Ares raised his eyebrows questionly, I quickly added, " There is no redeeming feature in me, so I don't understand how a mere demigod like me would become an interest to you."

Once he realized that my words meant no disrespect, he soften up his expression and I swore I heard him mutter something along the lines of "Just why does that Barnacle beard always get the good children." Pretending I didn't hear his little complaint, I simply smiled and waited for his response. Annabeth remained silent but through my peripheral view, I saw a pair of eyes scrutinizing me closely. As for Grover, well, he had been doing Grover things, which was basically biting his hands and surveying the whole situation with worry written all over his face.

"You're the only demigod at your age who is able to detect my concealed presence," Ares said slowly, and I had to stop myself from revealing a surprised expression. Using simple deduction, I knew the presence that had been tailing us this entire time wasn't from any of the Furies. What bothered me the most was my failed attempts at discerning the identity of the presence, and now that Ares revealed that it was him all along, I felt a bit relieved but also alarmed. "Anyway, that's why I decided to follow you and assist you. I was going to secretly kill the Chimera for you, but it seemed that you handled the situation quite well yourself. You're quite capable for your age, I gotta say."

I gave a respectful bow and replied, "Thank you, Lord Ares. Your praise worth a lot to me."

"You know what?" Ares began. "You can drop the title and just called me Ares."

I nodded my head and behind me I heard a small gasp escaped from Annabeth. This was probably her first encounter to an Olympian that wasn't her mother or Dionysus. In her eyes, the Olympians were almighty beings that no one could defy. To the divinities, we were just one of their many children that had been born to them throughout history and as such weren't special in any significant way.

I understood where Annabeth was coming from. Athena wasn't there when she was growing up. All the goddess did was leave Annabeth to her father's care before returning to the Olympus. At times of crisis, the wisdom goddess did show up when Annabeth most needed help, providing guidance for her daughter when she decided to escape from her family. Aside from that, Athena along with most Olympians upheld the philosophy of independent growth, where children of a god or goddess were responsible for their own paths.

"If that's the case, then I will comply," I said. "So what is the favor you may ask us to do in order to receive your generous help?"

"You're a very bright person, Perseus," he said as he nodded his head with approval. "Let see...ah yes, there might be one favor you can do for me though it might be a bit difficult, but I'm sure you will be able to accomplish it."

"And what will that be?" A faint evil smile appeared across Ares' face, and I swallowed nervously, hoping that it wouldn't be something like steal a golden apple from the Garden of Hesperides or retrieve his shield from the nearby waterpark.

As Ares rubbed his hands together in anticipation and ready to announce the task, a cough reminded us that we weren't the only one present. "Lord Ares, but I have strict order to capture these demigods alive and bring them forth to my master," Tisiphone said respectfully.

"What about it?"

"Things will be quite difficult for us if you don't allow us to complete this task," Megaera bowed and answered. While this sounded like a threat, Ares knew better than to go against Hades himself. Fighting off the three Furies at once was not a challenging task for the God of War himself, but making Hades an eternal enemy would be quite troublesome.

"I understand," Ares said after a brief moment. "But can you give us a second?" Knowing that they would accomplish their task successfully, the two Furies complied to the request. Ares then turned to us and snapped his fingers, conjuring a backpack and two duffel bags before tossing it to us. "Listen up kids," Ares began with a serious tone. "A Journey to the Underworld is quite dangerous so I prepared some stuff that you might find useful."

"That's very kind of you, Lord Ares," Annabeth said. "Thank you."

"This was supposed to be the gift after you complete the favor, but well, that didn't go as planned," Ares said. "Consider this as a down payment. If you return from the Underworld, then you'll have to make up for it." Here he gave us another evil smile, "By then, who knows what kind of favor I'll ask for."

"Pst, Percy," Grover whispered into my ears. "Maybe we shouldn't accept this gift.

"Nonsense," I told my friend, giving him a disapproving look. "When someone gives you a gift, you accept it and say thank you."

I said it loud enough for Ares to hear it and when he did, he gave an approving nod and glared at Grover, "Young goat, you better start acting like Perseus here or else one day you might find yourself in deep trouble."

"Y-Y-Yes Lord Ares. Absolutely," Grover stuttered out in panic. "I'm terribly sorry about that."

"Hm," Ares gave Grover one last stare and glanced briefly at Annabeth before turning his attention back to me. "I've stay here for too long. Good luck on your quest and don't forget about the favor you still owe me."

"Of course," I smirked and said. "I'll see you shortly." With that being said, Ares began emitting a blinding wave of light and reactively I closed my eyes. When I reopened them again, the two Furies and my companions were the only ones left.

"So are you going to stop trying to kill us?" I asked dryly but instead felt someone stomped my foot. "What was that for Annabeth?"

"Shush, we almost got killed earlier," Annabeth glared at me. "Stop making these stupid jokes."

"Hey," I protested. "That really hurts. Besides, I'm sure they weren't trying to kill us."

"Heh, don't underestimate us," Megaera said. "If we really wanted to kill you, you would've been dead."

"For now, we'll take you to Hades and behave yourself unless you want to end up in the Fields of Asphodel," Tisiphone said threateningly.

I shrugged and stuck my tongue out, but Annabeth and Grover didn't look as composed. "Oh boy," Grover bleated nervously. "We're definitely not gonna make it back alive...I mean, only few demigods like Hercules were ever able to leave that place." He then looked at Annabeth and asked, "Is there no other way?"

The daughter of Athena certainly looked agitated, judging by how she was chewing on her lips and how hard she was clenching her fist, but she tried her best to steady her voice, "I don't know. I mean, on the bright side it does save us the trouble of going to L.A. This way we can meet 'him' sooner and retrieve the Master Bolt."

"On the bright side, she said…," Grover muttered underneath his breath.

"Well," I began as I looked at the Furies expectantly. "Are we going or not?"

*Scene Break*

"This place is terrifying," Grover complained out loud. "We satyrs don't like anything underground."

"You'll be fine," I assured him while taking in the sight of the River Styx that was polluted by endless amount of lost hopes and dreams. "Just think about your Searcher's license after this."

"That's only if we make it out alive…," Annabeth supplied drly at the side. "Gods, I didn't think my day will end up like this."

Me neither. This was just...not right at all. When I challenged the anonymous presence earlier, I never thought it would be the Furies, rather the point of that was to draw out the stalker that had been tailing us this entire time. Since things happened so quickly one after another, we never got the chance to receive those special pearls that my dad gave me in my previous life. Without them, I had no clue how to leave that place without Hades' permission. Certainly, there was no way I could slaughter my way out of this especially with Annabeth and Grover at my side. The only way I could see us returning alive was to convince Hades into releasing us, but knowing his rough personality, the probability of that happening was miniscule. My third option would be using that…

Yes… Even though I don't want to, I could always resort to that… But that raised another problem: How exactly does it work? Using it without knowing its full extent could bring some terrible consequences, but fighting my way out or having a diplomatic talk with the Lord of the Dead were two very fickle plans. Glancing at Annabeth, I thought to myself, "What would Annabeth do in this situation?"

"Hey Percy," Annabeth whispered next to me when she noticed my gaze, lowering her voice to ensure that the Furies leading us wouldn't hear her. "You got a plan right? Or else why will you look so confident?"

I smiled at her and thought about the irony where the daughter of Athena was driven into a dire situation without a plan. "Right, I have a plan, so just follow my lead. I'm sure we will be fine." After hearing my answer, she let out a sigh a relief. A part of me felt guilty because that last part was mainly to reassure myself. I really hope I won't let Annabeth down again this time.

"What are you chattering about?" Tisiphone asked with her back still facing us. Not too far away, I could make out multiple silhouettes standing in three different lines. At the end of the lines was the judging pavilion that would put the dead souls in either the Fields of Punishment, Fields of Asphodel, or Elysium. A little bit to the right of that was a familiar enormous three headed Rottweiler, guarding the gates of Hades' Palace. "We're almost there. It will be really unfortunate if I decide to let Cerberus eat you for dinner. I heard he really likes goat meat."

"Blehh," Grover bleated scarily. "I-I-I'm a satyr, n-not a goat, and s-s-s-atyr meat is not delicious at all!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Megaera dismissed him with a wave. "It's not up to me to decide anyway. Speaking of which, we're here."

After fighting against the giants and seeing their ugly faces, I had come to a realization that Cerberus was actually a cute little puppy. The intimidation I once felt was silly now that I thought about it, but Annabeth and Grover didn't seem to harmonize with my thoughts. This entire trip they looked terrified, especially Grover. Annabeth had tried her best to hide her distress, but I was always able to see through her facade by little things she did such as lip chewing or closing and opening her fists constantly.

"Welcome back sisters," A familiar voice greeted us at the entrance of the door. "And you demigods, my master is waiting for you."

The three of us looked at each other, and I gave them a wry smile, "Welp, here goes." As I was about to advance forward, I couldn't help but buckle my knees at the sudden gain in weight on my back, throwing off my balance.

"Percy!" Grover exclaimed and ran to my side. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, no worries," I told him as he helped me up. Damn it. So the lightning bolt was still in the backpack all this time. I had my suspicion but was unsure due to the fact that the events had been all mixed up. If I knew this was going to happen, I would tell Annabeth and Grover to take the backpack back to Olympus while I go and accomplish a task I had in mind on my own. This might just turn out exactly like last time minus the part where we escaped with Poseidon's pearls. "Let's keep going."

I had only been to Hades' palace a couple of times but there was no way I would forget this place. The concept for this piece of architecture was similar to that of medieval Roman Catholic church with an extremely high ceiling and enlarged windows with the only difference being entirely black. The steps leading up the stairway and the elongated hallway were covered with a piece of red carpet and either piles of bones or ancient Greek style armor on the sides. The shadows that were casted behind us, created by the torches on the wall, made this place even creepier. But why were there purple daisies and baskets of flowers on the floor? It looked extremely out of place like coco puffs with mustard and could someone please explain to me why that skeleton over there has a leis around its neck?

Then it hit me. All of this could only be done by one person and one person only. Due to the gloominess in the Underworld, Persephone had suggested to grow some flowers to lighten up the atmosphere. Obviously, Hades prefer darkness so the idea was veto at the spot, but that didn't stop the Goddess of Harvest from her little operation as demonstrated by these small decorations in the hallways. There was no way that Hades wouldn't notice these kind of things, but for his beloved wife, I was certain that he chose to let that slip. That and if Demeter found out about how Hades refuse to grant her daughter's wish, then there would be no end to it.

"Master," Alecto and her sisters bowed respectfully at the man sitting at the end of the room. "I've brought Perseus Jackson and his companions here as you command."

"Very well," A deep and gravelly voice spoke up. "You may leave us." Once again, the Furies bowed before warping themselves away, leaving only the four of us alone in the room.

It was very awkward, seeing how Hades was merely studying us, or at least that was what I think. Annabeth was fidgeting with her hands nervously as for Grover, let's just say he has seen much better days. The poor satyr was trembling out of control and had to cover his mouth with this hands in order to stop himself from bleating. Under the presence any other divinity, the reaction wouldn't be as severe, but the aura that rolled off from Hades amplified the inner fear that they possessed.

I sighed as I could no longer stand this uncomfortable silence and allow my friends to suffer like this. "Erm, Lord Hades," I began politely as I feigned my innocence. "I don't mean to be rude, but what is the reason for your summon?"

"Tsk, tsk," Hades chided, shaking his head in disappointment. "So this is the son of Poseidon that I've been hearing so much about. Well, either way, I'm sure you know why I summoned you."

"Sorry, but I really don't." Once again, I said innocently. "I only agreed to come here because I thought you can tell us about the missing lightning bolt."

"Boy, are you accusing me as the thief?" Hades roared, slamming the arm of his chair with purple flames dancing around his black orbs. "Why will I even care about that stupid bolt? But of course, you gods and demigods will always accuse me for every wrongdoings. Why? Because I'm an outcast, AN OUTCAST!"

"Lord Hades," I spoke up calmly. "I'm not accusing you of stealing the Master Bolt. I know you didn't, and I know who the thief is."

"Oh?" Hades raised his eyebrows, prompting me to continue. Good. This was exactly what I need. As long as Hades was willing to cooperate and talk diplomatically, then everything will go as smooth as silk. Right when I was about to explain to him about Luke's betrayal, the previous anger that dissipated somehow returned. "Y-You," Hades pointed at me with trembling rage. "It was you who stole it. I could sense the power of that bolt. Open up the backpack and prove to me that you're the thief."

Annabeth and Grover looked at me with confusion while I reluctantly took off the backpack. Then there it was, sitting in my backpack was a two foot long cylinder made of Celestial Bronze capped on both ends. Even though without its owner the object was deactivated, but the potential power that it could draw on could still be sensed, sending tingling feelings throughout my skin.

"Percy wha-," Grover asked incredulously. "How is it that you have the bolt this entire time?"

"He didn't," Annabeth began slowly, her face now in deep contemplation. "Ares was the one who gave us the backpack, so in other words, this might be a trap that Ares' laid."

"Nonsense," Hades roared. "Why will Ares do such thing? Now tell me, under whose order are you acting under? Was it Poseidon? A puny demigod like you will never have the guts to commit such stupidity." Before I could even explain the current circumstance, Hades rambled onwards. "Yes it has to be Poseidon. So this was his plan all along: get his son to steal Zeus' bolt and my Helm of Darkness so that he can be the most powerful out of all of us," Hades mumbled angrily as he began pacing back and forth in the throne room. "Heh, little does he know that his precious son ruined all this for him."

"Sir," Annabeth swallowed hard when Hades directed his murderous glare towards her. "It's true that Lord Ares' gave us the backpack and even if Percy is the thief, why will he come here to begin with?"

"Ha, that's simple," Hades gave an evil grin. "Because of this, obviously." With a snap, a compressed jar appeared and inside was -

"Percy, it's your mom," Grover pointed out. "But I thought she died."

"Of course not," Hades' devilish grin widened. "If I had killed her, then Perseus here wouldn't be here. Am I right?"

Welp, there goes my plan of talking my way out of this. Time to execute my second plan.

"Alright you got me," I surrendered my hands up in the sky but mentally prepared myself for what was about to come. "I've come here to bargain for my mother's life... but with yours." Before I even finished the last part of the sentence, I conjured multiple hardened water pellets and aimed it at Hades. There was absolutely no way that it would be remotely close enough to harm him, but it might serve as enough distraction for us to escape the room.

"RUN," I yelled while shooting out more pellets of water. As expected, the water was evaporated by dark flames before it could reach Hades, but that didn't matter. My objective was to buy as much time as possible for us to leave this place. There might be another way to leave the Underworld if we look hard enough, but first, we have to escape.

"I can't, Percy," Annabeth yelled. "There seems to be an invisible wall in front of me!" Confused by her remarks, I attempted to move my body forward but was met with great resistance.

"Just how foolish can you be?" Hades laughed and said. "Attacking an Olympian? You really think was going to work? Boy, let me tell you something, unless you're a child of mine or have my permission, no demigods can ever escape this place."

"If you want the Helm, then sorry to break it to you but I don't have it," I gritted my teeth and said as I continuously try to fight the restraint. "And I already told you that Ares was the one who gave me the backpack, so if you want your Helm, go ask him yourself."

Silence dawned upon the room after my statement, and I had thought that Hades might turn out to be reasonable. "Very well," Hades spoke up after a brief silence. "It seems that you still insist on your lie. Killing you here will only be problematic for me. FURIES!" Instantly, three black figures emerged from the shadows all kneeling down awaiting for Hades' order. "Take them to the cells. Poseidon can cry all he wants but there will be nothing he can do if I imprison his precious son here."

"What about the bolt, my Lord," Alecto asked.

"Hmm," Hades hummed as he thought about the question. "Take it from the boy. In a couple of days when my brothers start a new war, I could sit back and watch who the victorious one is. After that, I can raise from the Underworld and rule them with this Master Bolt." When he realized that his plan was near flawless, he began to laugh uncontrollably. "What are you waiting for? Go take it from him."

After all this time, not only did my failure put everyone here in danger, but also allowed the gods to start another destructive war. Didn't Chronos put me back here so that I could defeat Gaia? Would I get another chance? Or was this the end for me?

No. There was one more thing I could do. It might be risky, but to prevent catastrophe from happening, I must use it. Sticking my hand into the left pocket, I fished out the stopwatch that I found couple of days ago and began to twisting the knobs on it.

"What are you doing now, boy?" Hades looked at me questioningly. "It's futile. A puny stopwatch isn't going to save you from your fate." I ignored him and continued fiddling with the device. The Furies were practically in front of me now. It was now or never, so without knowing the consequence of my action, I pressed on the knob.

Everything around me began to distort and I could feel my body being compressed and suck into space itself. I gave Annabeth one last look before closing my eyes, assuring myself that I would be able to see her again. Vaguely, I could hear screams of anger erupting in the throne room, but the odd phenomenon that was occurring was something that Hades had never witnessed before, so he too, was helpless against it.

The chaos that I felt earlier disappeared but was instead replaced by a bunch of noisy crowds. Slowly, I opened my eyes up and was momentarily confused by the familiar sight of the St. Louis Arc.

What exactly happened was the first thing that went through my mind. I began strolling around the place to find some clues, checking for the time and date, and everything seemed to be identical. Judging by how Annabeth and Grover weren't by my side, I assumed that they went to buy tickets for the observation deck, which means Echidna…

I must warn them right now. As I tried to run, I noticed that my backpack seemed to have gotten heavier than the last time I was here. The weight on my back felt as if the lightning bolt was still here and there was no way that could be the case. However, the speed at which I was running at was greatly hindered by the extra weight on me.

"Just what's in my bag?" I muttered to myself as I swung my backpack off of my back. When I unzipped it I found myself froze at the sight of the lightning bolt that Hades' wanted not too long ago. "What the heck?"

"Hey Percy," I whipped my head back and saw Annabeth and Grover making their way back from the ticket booth. Swiftly, I zipped up my backpack and hide my surprise with a smile. "You sure you don't want to come with us to the deck? You can still get a ticket if you want. We'll wait for you."


End file.
